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As some of the world鈥檚 wealthiest democratic nations prepare to meet in the UK at the G7 summit this week, pressure is mounting on high-income countries to donate more covid-19 vaccines to poorer parts of the globe.
Ahead of the talks, the children鈥檚听charity UNICEF warned the G7 group that member nations need to supply vaccine doses to COVAX, the vaccine distribution plan set up by the World Health Organization (WHO), at a slow and听steady rate throughout the year. It said听that , as some low-income countries may not have the facilities for administering so听many doses in one go.
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In an co-written by Jeremy Farrah, director of the Wellcome Trust, the charity also called for 20 per cent of available UK vaccine doses between now and August to be donated, and requested that G7 countries collectively share 1 billion covid-19 vaccine doses over the course of 2021.鈥淭his is both achievable and听essential if we are to have a听real impact on the pandemic. It听must start at once, with a clear plan for how this will be scaled up听as countries become more protected,鈥� the letter says.
In a , celebrities including Billie Eilish and Claudia听Schiffer echoed the need to share vaccines now, rather than waiting until domestic vaccine drives are complete.
Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown , saying that it is in听richer nations鈥� self-interest to stop outbreaks from happening elsewhere in the world, as greater spread of the coronavirus could lead to new, more dangerous variants developing.
The WHO鈥檚 director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has also asked vaccine manufacturers to.
The WHO would like at least 10听per cent of people in every nation to be vaccinated by September, and 30听per cent by the end of this year. COVAX will play a large role in achieving that, but to date the scheme has only shipped enough vaccine for about 1听per cent of听people in 129 countries.
The UK has said that it will donate excess doses of vaccine to听the COVAX scheme, but hasn鈥檛 said how many doses this will be, nor given a timeline. Last week, the country鈥檚 health secretary Matt Hancock said the UK didn鈥檛 currently have any spare doses and that vaccinating children in the UK would take priority. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has now been approved for use in children aged 12 and above in the UK.
However, some for richer countries to give vaccines to under-18s, who are generally unlikely to get seriously ill from this virus, when there are听still vulnerable people and healthcare workers in low-income countries who are unvaccinated.
The new call to share vaccines comes as the UK faces increasing pressure to ramp up its own immunisation effort in the face of听the faster-spreading delta variant of the coronavirus, previously known as B.1.617.2, first听identified in India.
After one dose, the Oxford/AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines are only 34听per cent effective against this variant, although after two doses they are听60 and 88听per cent effective respectively. As a result, the UK has shortened the recommended interval between vaccine doses to eight weeks, down from 12 weeks originally, for the over 50s.
Many countries, including the UK, also have plans to offer third 鈥渂ooster鈥� shots of vaccine to some people later in 2021, potentially causing further delays to the point when the nation has spare doses that it is willing to donate.
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