EU ups its Covax vaccine funding to 1 billion euros

THE European Commission has pledged to double its contribution to the World Health Organisation’s Covax programme, bringing the 27-nation bloc’s commitment to the initiative to deliver vaccines to poor nations to a billion euros (£870 million).

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen praised a “true moment of global solidarity” in a statement as leaders of the G7 economic powers gathered in a virtual meeting.

She also announced an additional 100 million euros (£87 million) to support vaccination campaigns in Africa in partnership with the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The funding will be used to strengthen health systems, ensure the cold chains, buy equipment and train staff,” Ms von der Leyen said, adding that the EU would discuss with drug-makers how they could ramp up Covid-19 vaccine production capacity in Africa.

“We are also exploring potential support to boost local production under licensing arrangements,” she said.

The EU is one of the leading donors to the Covax programme, which aims to ensure equitable access to Covid-19 shots for low and middle-income countries. Covax hopes to deploy 336 million doses by the end of June, and around two billion by the end of the year.

But the programme has already missed the goal of starting vaccination in poor countries at the same time that doses were rolled out in rich countries.

This week, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres criticised the “wildly uneven and unfair” distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, saying 10 countries had administered 75 per cent of the vaccinations given worldwide so far and demanding a global effort to get all people in every nation vaccinated as soon as possible.

Amnesty International said a failure to ensure global access to vaccines represented “an abject moral failure that will ultimately harm rich countries”.

“The leaders of G7 nations are shooting themselves in the foot by failing to ensure the equal distribution of coronavirus vaccines globally,” said Netsanet Belay, the research and advocacy director at Amnesty International.

The EU has been criticised for its handling of the bloc’s vaccine procurement process.

Despite securing a portfolio of up to 2.6 billion doses that would be largely sufficient to inoculate its 450 million residents, vaccinations in Europe have been slowed by delays in the production and deliveries of shots.

In addition to its Covax contribution, the EU said it planned to share some of its doses with neighbours in Europe and Africa.

Ms von der Leyen has regularly insisted that global solidarity is needed not only to help the world’s poorest countries but also to protect the EU, as “nobody is safe until everybody is safe”.