A total of $4.3 billion in new investments was pledged at the G7 meeting on Feb. 19 for the distribution of vaccines, therapeutics and tests, to fight COVID-19 in developing countries. The funds go to the ACT Accelerator, set up in part by the WHO in April, 2020, to provide 2 billion vaccine doses in 2021; train 10,000 healthcare professionals in 50 countries; and provide testing for 500 million people by mid-2021.
With the new $4.3 billion, and $6 billion in previous pledges from largely non-governmental sources, the ACT Accelerator is about $23-27 billion short of their 2020/1 projects. The press release of the WHO expressed thanks for the new commitments, but stated: “Global health leaders reiterated, however, that without further significant financial commitments, access to COVID-19 tools would be delayed, risking further mutations and prolonging the pandemic everywhere.”
The U.S. contribution is $2 billion, Germany $1.8 billion, the EU $363 million, Japan $79 million and Canada $59 million. The U.S. Congress voted $4 billion for the effort in December, but the other $2 billion is being deferred, with $500 million provided after other countries fulfill their pledges, and the other $1.5 billion in portions after 2021.
In addition, on Feb. 19, the U.K. joined the list—Canada, France, Norway and the EU—offering to provide vaccines that they have purchased, over and above what they can use. These countries have two to three times the amount of vaccine doses needed to supply their population. The U.S. has so far made no such commitment, and in fact has moved in the opposite direction. In January, the U.S. had a modest margin of extra doses, around 1.3 times the population, when President Biden decided to purchase 200 million more doses, putting the U.S. at close to double the number of doses needed.
