EU and Gates Foundation Pledge to Get Vaccines to Poor Nations

(AP) European governments and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pledged on Thursday to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency funds for a global effort aimed at ensuring eventual virus vaccines are quickly available to poor countries - though it remains unclear how that might actually happen.

The money will go to vaccine development and distribution efforts coordinated by a World Health Organization program called ACT-Accelerator.

That includes Covax, an ambitious but troubled global project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world's poorest people.

"If people in low- and middle-income countries miss out on vaccines ... the virus will continue to spread, and the economic recovery will continue to be delayed," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum, where the pledges were announced.

Among other European governments, France and the European Commission promised 100 million euros each for the WHO vaccine efforts, Spain promised 50 million euros, and the Gates Foundation promised $70 million. The new financing is in addition to funds that countries have already contributed to Covax.

Speaking about ACT-Accelerator on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said it would "ensure that the regulatory and political conditions are met for the largest and fastest access to these products (treatment and vaccine) as well as respecting the international quality standards."

Criticizing rich countries that he said are ordering many more vaccines than they have people, Ghebreyesus said, "Equitable access is in the national interest of each and every country. Vaccine nationalism will prolong the pandemic, not shorten it."

Britain, for example, has ordered 350 vaccine doses for its population of about 67 million, although some vaccines require two doses. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly promised that Britons will be "at the front of the pack" for vaccine delivery.

The vast majority of the world's COVID vaccine supply through 2021 has already been reserved by rich countries, so it's very unlikely that the developing world will get any significant amounts next year unless vaccine manufacturers can significantly ramp up capacity or intellectual property issues are addressed - something WHO and its partners have been careful to avoid.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU is also funding efforts to ramp up manufacturing capacity to meet the huge global demand for a coronavirus vaccine.

She said "no one is safe until everybody is safe" in relation to ensuring "the most vulnerable groups, the frontline workers and the health care workers for example, are the ones who get the vaccine first."

The money committed on Thursday does not go to any specific vaccine. Pfizer appears to have the most advanced candidate at the moment, based on preliminary data it released this week, but it does not have a deal so far with Covax.

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