It’s a global fight

Next week’s global summit on fighting the pandemic, which will happen on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, presents a golden opportunity for the United States and President Joe Biden to step up to the problem of global vaccine inequity. He must push the summit to go beyond the usual speeches and pledges to achieve concrete results—more shots for the poorer nations.

Biden has endorsed the goal of vaccinating the globe, and the United States has pledged about 600 million doses to other countries, including through the multilateral Covax facility for poorer nations. But promises and goals have already come and gone. The reality remains: The world is badly divided between the immunized haves and havenots.

At a time when the United States and Europe are considering using additional doses for boosters, many poor countries look askance. We’ve supported the argument this should not be a zero-sum game—that both boosters and global needs should be met. Now it is time to prove it can be done.

Building new vaccine manufacturing around the globe is an optimal solution, but due to the complexity of it, can only be a long-term objective. Although Biden earlier supported a waiver on intellectual property rights on the covid shots, World Trade Organization negotiations have stalled. What needs to happen now is to accelerate dose delivery to lower- and middle-income countries. As the White House plan for the summit notes, rich countries could swap places in delivery schedules with poorer countries, and expedite delivery of those doses already pledged. It would be a major boost if India, a major vaccine manufacturer and supplier to Covax, will resume exports, which were stopped during its recent surge of infections.