G-7’s message of hope

The Group of Seven nations are set to commit to sharing at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with the world, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Thursday.

Half would come from the US and 100 million from Britain as US President Joe Biden urged allies to join in speeding the pandemic’s end and bolstering the strategic position of the world’s wealthiest democracies.

Johnson’s announcement on the eve of the G-7 leaders’ summit in England came hours after Biden committed to donating 500 million covid-19 vaccine doses and previewed a coordinated effort by the advanced economies to make vaccination widely and speedily available everywhere.

“We’re going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners,” Biden said, adding that the G-7 nations were to joins the US yesterday in outlining their vaccine donation commitments. The G-7 also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Johnson’s office said the first five million British doses would be shared in the coming weeks, with the remainder coming over the next year.

Biden’s own commitment was on top of the 80 million doses he has already pledged to donate by the end of June.

“At the G7 Summit, I hope my fellow leaders will make similar pledges so that, together, we can vaccinate the world by the end of next year and build back better from coronavirus,” Johnson said in a statement referencing the US

president’s campaign slogan.

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the US commitment and said Europe should do the same. He said France would share at least 30 million doses globally by year’s end.

“I think the European Union needs to have at least the same level of ambition as the United States,” he said at a news conference.

The G-7 leaders have faced mounting pressure to outline their global vaccine sharing plans, especially as inequities in supply around the world have become more pronounced.

The US has a large vaccine stockpile and the demand for shots has dropped sharply in recent weeks.

Biden predicted the US doses and the overall G-7 commitment would “supercharge” the global vaccination campaign, adding

that the US doses came with no strings attached.

“Our vaccine donations don’t include pressure for favours or potential concessions,” Biden said. “We’re doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic, that’s it.”

The US commitment is to buy and donate 500 million Pfizer doses for distribution through the global Covax alliance to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, bringing the first steady supply of MRNA vaccine to the countries that need it most.

Biden said the 500 million Us-manufactured vaccines will be shipped starting in August, with the goal of distributing 200 million by the end of the year. The remaining 300 million doses would be shipped in the first half of 2022. A price tag for the doses was not released, but the US is now set to be Covax’s largest vaccine donor in addition to its

single largest funder with a $US4 billion [$NZ5.56B] commitment.

The well-funded global alliance has faced a slow start to its vaccination campaign, as richer nations have locked up billions of doses through contracts directly with drug manufacturers.

Covax has distributed just 81 million doses globally and parts of the world, particularly in Africa, remain vaccine deserts.

The Us-produced MRNA vaccines have also proven to be more effective against both the original strain and more dangerous variants of covid-19 than the more conventional vaccines produced by China and Russia.

Some countries that have had success in deploying those conventional vaccines have nonetheless seen cases spike.