Biden donates 500 million more COVID-19 vaccines globally

Joe Biden, United States President has pledged to donate 500 million more doses of the Pfizer vaccine to developing nations from next year, TopNaija reports.

He made the pledge at a virtual Covid-19 summit on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, promising an “arsenal of vaccines”.

“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said. He added that with the new commitments, “For every one shot we’ve administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world.”

The additional vaccines will see the total US commitment on vaccine sharing exceed one billion jabs.

The World Health Organisation has set a minimum target of 40% vaccine coverage in every country by the end of 2021.Health experts say some 11 billion doses are required to vaccinate at least 70% of the global population.

But according to data from the University of Oxford, only 2% of people in low-income countries have had their first dose, compared to many high-income countrieswho have now given at least one shot to more than half their populations.

In June, members of the G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – pledged to donate one billion doses to poor countries over the next year.

Biden pledged 580m at the time, of which the US has delivered only 160m so far.

The donated vaccines are routed through Covax, the global scheme supported by the WHO to get doses where they’re needed most.

COVAX has missed nearly all of its vaccine-sharing targets. Its managers also have lowered their ambitions to ship vaccines by the end of this year, from an original target of some 2 billion doses worldwide to hopes for 1.4 billion now. Even that mark could be missed. COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, abbreviated as COVAX, is a worldwide initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, or GAVI), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

As of Tuesday, COVAX had shipped more than 296 million doses to 141 countries.

Biden had set a goal of vaccinating 70% of the U.S. adult population by July 4, but persistent vaccine hesitance contributed to the nation not meeting that target until a month later. Nearly 64% of the entire U.S. population has received at least one dose and less than 55% is fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.