June 11, 2021 Statements and Releases [Excerpt; Text-bolding from original]
Today, President Biden welcomed the historic commitment of the leaders of the G7 and guest countries to provide more than 1 billion additional COVID-19 vaccines for the world, starting this summer, of which the United States will contribute half a billion doses.
This commitment forms the basis of a comprehensive set of G7+ actions towards ending this global pandemic in 2022. The G7+ action plan that will be agreed to by leaders in Cornwall includes vaccinating the world’s most vulnerable, providing emergency supplies, bolstering world-wide economic recovery, and positioning the international community to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond to future biological catastrophes.
The United States will lead the G7+ in a global COVID-19 vaccination campaign, providing 500 million safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for the world through COVAX, with delivery starting in August 2021. This donation, which President Biden announced yesterday, is the largest single donation of vaccines in history and comprises half of the G7+ commitment to provide an additional 1 billion safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine doses over the next 12 months, especially to the world’s most vulnerable.
In addition, we are taking concrete and tangible steps to meet the ambition of the G7+ and drive action to end this pandemic and prevent the next. We call on other countries and private sector partners to join us.
To end the global COVID-19 pandemic, the United States and the G7+ will:
:: Accelerate Vaccination of the World’s Most Vulnerable
We are fully committed to working towards the ambitious goal of ending the pandemic. Yesterday’s announcement of half a billion new vaccine doses comes on top of both the at least 80 million vaccine doses previously announced by President Biden and the $2 billion in funding which the United States has previously provided to Gavi to support COVAX. We call on countries to donate additional doses of safe and effective vaccines, strengthen vaccine readiness, and work with private sector partners to vaccinate the world.
:: Support Last Mile Vaccination and Getting Shots into Arms
The Biden-Harris Administration will be providing hundreds of millions in support for programs that provide assistance to help countries and health systems prepare for vaccination around the world, including in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. That assistance comes on top of longstanding U.S. support for countries and communities around the world for immunization and strengthening health systems.
:: Save Lives Now with PPE and Emergency Medical Supplies
The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in efforts to help fragile countries with their emergency response, including lifesaving medical and other supplies to tackle COVID-19 surges while strengthening their health systems, building capacity to manage surges, and preventing disease spread. We must expand our emergency responses, including by delivering lifesaving medical supplies, oxygen, diagnostics, therapeutics, and PPE. We are providing emergency assistance in 2021 to regions that need it most, including sending multiple flights and more than $100 million in health assistance to India, and supporting responses in South Asia and Latin America as countries experience surges in COVID-19 cases…
:: Boosting Global Supply and Supporting Surge Capacity
We must increase our investments in local production capacity for safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, raw materials, diagnostics, and medical supplies. We will help develop and sustain a global vaccine supply network for this pandemic and the next…
The Biden-Harris Administration is investing, through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), in local production capacity for safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines, which will support at least 1 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2022. This includes our efforts through the Quad Vaccine Partnership of the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, and with peer Development Finance Institutions including the IFC, Proparco, and DEG to support vaccine manufacturing in Africa – for Africa. We strongly support the aim of developing a regional network of surge capacity to produce medical countermeasures, PPE, and other lifesaving treatments and supplies.
We recognize that the above immediate actions to end the pandemic contribute to our collective longer-term preparedness. We are committed to developing sustainable surge capacity in every region to scale up medical countermeasures and supply production on a “no regrets” basis at the first sign of a health crisis…
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WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the G7 Summit – 12 June 2021
12 June 2021
Thank you, Prime Minister Johnson, and greetings to everyone. As Sir Patrick and Melinda have outlined, the pandemic is asking us many questions. We welcome and appreciate the ambition of the 100 days mission – we need bigger, faster, better for the future.
The question that every person on earth is now asking is: how and when will we end this pandemic?
We have the knowledge and tools to do it, including vaccines.
In each of your nations, public health measures in combination with vaccination is driving cases and deaths to the lowest levels since the pandemic began. But around the world, many other countries are now facing a surge in cases – and they are facing it without vaccines.
We are in the race of our lives, but it’s not a fair race, and most countries have barely left the starting line.
Our short-term targets are to vaccinate at least 10% of the population of every country by September, and at least 40% by the end of the year, as you have seen in the joint proposal by the IMF, WHO, WTO and the World Bank. To reach those targets, we need 100 million more doses right now – this month and next month – and 250 million more by September. But we must aim higher.
To truly end the pandemic, our goal must be to vaccinate at least 70% of the world’s population by the time you meet again in Germany next year. This can be done with the support of the G7 and G20, together. To do that, we need 11 billion doses.
We welcome the generous announcements you have made about donations of vaccines. Thank you. But we need more, and we need them faster. Immediate dose donations are vital, ideally through COVAX. But so is scaling up production, including through the use of technology transfer and intellectual property waivers.
There are many other lessons we all must learn about how to keep our nations and our world safer from future pandemics. Above all, at the root of the pandemic is a deficit of solidarity and sharing – of the data, information, resources, technology and tools that every nation needs to keep its people safe.
WHO believes the best way to close that deficit is with an international agreement – a treaty, convention, call it what you will – to provide the basis for improved preparedness, detection and response, and for improved cooperation to identify the origins of new pathogens. And I would like to join Boris in thanking Charles Michel. It would also provide a vital underpinning for a stronger WHO at the centre of the global health architecture.
With 194 Member States and 150 country offices, WHO has a unique global mandate, unique global reach and unique global legitimacy. The pandemic has shown that the world needs the World Health Organization more than ever.
We look to the G7 for your continued support for a stronger WHO, for a safer world. Thank you.
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