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Helping the World Fight COVID-19
At their recent summit meeting in Britain, the group of democracies known as the G7+ committed to share at least 870 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. These doses, combined with commitments made since February 2021, will make up a donation of more than 1 billion doses over the next year. The United States will contribute half of the doses.
“Our international priority is to accelerate the rollout of safe and effective, accessible and affordable vaccines for the poorest countries, noting the role of extensive immunization as a global public good,” the G7 leaders wrote in a statement.
President Biden welcomed the historic commitment that followed his own announcement leading up to the summit -- that the United States will purchase a half billion doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to donate to nearly 100 nations and economies, including 92 low- and middle-income economies that are in dire need in the fight against this pandemic. As the President pointed out, the United States is making “the largest single purchase and donation of COVID-19 vaccines by any single country ever.”
“These half a billion vaccines will start to be shipped in August as quickly as they roll off the manufacturing line,” said President Biden. “Two hundred million of these doses will be delivered this year, in 2021, and 300 million more will be delivered in the first half of 2022.”
The U.S. commitment to donate a half billion Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses to the global fight comes on top of the at least 80 million doses previously announced by President Biden and the $2 billion in funding which the United States provided in support of COVAX, the international mechanism for delivering safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
The newly announced pledge by the G7 countries means that since 2020, the G7 partners committed to financing and providing over 2 billion vaccines for the world. The G7 is also committed to expanding local production for a least 1 billion doses of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 and 2022, including through partnerships like the Quad Vaccine Partnership of the United States, Australia, India, and Japan.
President Biden noted there was a clear consensus among G7 partners that their recent commitments do not mark the end of their efforts to defeat COVID-19. “This,” he declared, is going to be a constant project for a long time.”