Washington: President Joe Biden Will appeal for a renewed international commitment to attacking COVID-19 as he organizes the second global COVID-19 summit at a time when faltering at home jeopardizes that global response.
Eight months after the first such summit was used to announce an ambitious pledge to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses to the world, the urgency of the US and other countries’ response has diminished.
The momentum on vaccination and treatment has faded, even though newer, more infectious forms are on the rise and billions of people around the world are vulnerable. Congress has refused to meet Biden’s request to provide $22.5 billion in critically needed aid funding.
white House said Biden Will address the opening of the virtual summit on Thursday morning with pre-written remarks and make the case that addressing COVID-19 “must remain an international priority.” The US is co-hosting the summit along with Germany, Indonesia, Senegal and Belize.
According to the State Department, the US has shipped nearly 540 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries and territories – far more than any other donor nation.
With more than 1 billion vaccines delivered to developing countries, the problem is not enough shots, but the lack of logistical support to get the doses into weapons. According to government data, more than 68 crore donated vaccine doses have been left unused in developing countries because they were due to expire and could not be administered quickly. As of March, the 32 poor countries had used less than half of the COVID-19 vaccines shipped.
US aid to promote and facilitate vaccination overseas ended earlier this year, and Biden requested about $5 billion for the effort during the rest of the year.
“We have millions of unclaimed supplements because countries lack the resources to build their cold chains, which are basically refrigeration systems; To fight propaganda; And to hire vaccinators,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week. He added that the summit “is going to be an opportunity to elevate the fact that we need additional funding to continue to be a part of this worldwide effort.”
“We will continue to fight for more funding here,” Saki said. “But we will continue to pressure other countries to do more to help the world progress as well.”
Congress has put a moratorium on the price tag for COVID-19 relief and thus far refused to take the package because of political opposition to the imminent end of pandemic-era migration restrictions at the US-Mexico border. Even after a brief consensus for virus funding in March, lawmakers decided to forgo global aid funding and focus solely on boosting US supplies of vaccine booster shots and therapeutics.
Biden has warned that without congressional action, the US could lose access to the next generation of vaccines and treatments, and the nation will not have a booster dose or an adequate supply of the antiviral drug Paxlovid later this year. He is also sounding the alarm that more versions will emerge if the US and the world do not do more to contain the virus globally.
“To defeat the pandemic here, we need to defeat it everywhere,” Biden said during the first global summit last September.
The virus has killed more than 995,000 people in the US and at least 6.2 million globally, according to data kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. World Health Organization,
Demand for COVID-19 vaccines has declined in some countries as infections and deaths have fallen globally in recent months, particularly as the Omicron variant has proven less severe than the older versions of the disease. For the first time since it was created, the UN-backed COVAX effort has “sufficient supplies to enable countries to meet their national vaccination goals,” said Dr. According to Seth Berkeley, who leads COVAX.
Yet, despite more than 65% of the world’s population receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 16% of people in poor countries have been vaccinated. It is highly unlikely that countries will achieve the World Health Organization’s goal of immunizing 70% of all people by June.
In countries including Cameroon, Uganda and the Ivory Coast, authorities have struggled to get enough refrigerators to transport vaccines, enough syringes for mass campaigns and enough health workers to administer shots. Experts also point out that more than half of the health workers needed to administer vaccines in poor countries are either underpaid or not paid at all.
Critics say donating more vaccines would miss the point altogether.
“It’s like donating a bunch of fire trucks to countries that are on fire but don’t have water,” said Ritu Sharma, vice president of Charity Care, which helps immunize people in more than 30 countries, including India, the South. is.” Sudan and Bangladesh.
“We can’t give countries all these vaccines, but there’s no way to use them,” he said, adding that the same infrastructure shots administered in the US are now needed elsewhere. “We had to deal with this problem in America, so why aren’t we now using that knowledge to deliver vaccines to the people who need them most?”
Sharma said more investment is needed to combat vaccine hesitation in developing countries, where there is a belief about the potential dangers of Western-made drugs.
“Leaders must agree to follow a coherent strategy to end the pandemic rather than a fragmented approach that prolongs the lifespan of this crisis,” said Gail Smith, CEO of The One Campaign.
GAVI’s Berkeley also said countries are increasingly demanding expensive messenger RNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are not as readily available as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which made up the bulk of COVAX’s supply last year.
The emergence of variants such as Delta and Omicron has prompted many countries to switch to mRNA vaccines, which provide more protection and compared to conventionally made vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Novavax or vaccines made by China and Russia. are in high demand globally.
,
Eight months after the first such summit was used to announce an ambitious pledge to donate 1.2 billion vaccine doses to the world, the urgency of the US and other countries’ response has diminished.
The momentum on vaccination and treatment has faded, even though newer, more infectious forms are on the rise and billions of people around the world are vulnerable. Congress has refused to meet Biden’s request to provide $22.5 billion in critically needed aid funding.
white House said Biden Will address the opening of the virtual summit on Thursday morning with pre-written remarks and make the case that addressing COVID-19 “must remain an international priority.” The US is co-hosting the summit along with Germany, Indonesia, Senegal and Belize.
According to the State Department, the US has shipped nearly 540 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries and territories – far more than any other donor nation.
With more than 1 billion vaccines delivered to developing countries, the problem is not enough shots, but the lack of logistical support to get the doses into weapons. According to government data, more than 68 crore donated vaccine doses have been left unused in developing countries because they were due to expire and could not be administered quickly. As of March, the 32 poor countries had used less than half of the COVID-19 vaccines shipped.
US aid to promote and facilitate vaccination overseas ended earlier this year, and Biden requested about $5 billion for the effort during the rest of the year.
“We have millions of unclaimed supplements because countries lack the resources to build their cold chains, which are basically refrigeration systems; To fight propaganda; And to hire vaccinators,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this week. He added that the summit “is going to be an opportunity to elevate the fact that we need additional funding to continue to be a part of this worldwide effort.”
“We will continue to fight for more funding here,” Saki said. “But we will continue to pressure other countries to do more to help the world progress as well.”
Congress has put a moratorium on the price tag for COVID-19 relief and thus far refused to take the package because of political opposition to the imminent end of pandemic-era migration restrictions at the US-Mexico border. Even after a brief consensus for virus funding in March, lawmakers decided to forgo global aid funding and focus solely on boosting US supplies of vaccine booster shots and therapeutics.
Biden has warned that without congressional action, the US could lose access to the next generation of vaccines and treatments, and the nation will not have a booster dose or an adequate supply of the antiviral drug Paxlovid later this year. He is also sounding the alarm that more versions will emerge if the US and the world do not do more to contain the virus globally.
“To defeat the pandemic here, we need to defeat it everywhere,” Biden said during the first global summit last September.
The virus has killed more than 995,000 people in the US and at least 6.2 million globally, according to data kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. World Health Organization,
Demand for COVID-19 vaccines has declined in some countries as infections and deaths have fallen globally in recent months, particularly as the Omicron variant has proven less severe than the older versions of the disease. For the first time since it was created, the UN-backed COVAX effort has “sufficient supplies to enable countries to meet their national vaccination goals,” said Dr. According to Seth Berkeley, who leads COVAX.
Yet, despite more than 65% of the world’s population receiving at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, less than 16% of people in poor countries have been vaccinated. It is highly unlikely that countries will achieve the World Health Organization’s goal of immunizing 70% of all people by June.
In countries including Cameroon, Uganda and the Ivory Coast, authorities have struggled to get enough refrigerators to transport vaccines, enough syringes for mass campaigns and enough health workers to administer shots. Experts also point out that more than half of the health workers needed to administer vaccines in poor countries are either underpaid or not paid at all.
Critics say donating more vaccines would miss the point altogether.
“It’s like donating a bunch of fire trucks to countries that are on fire but don’t have water,” said Ritu Sharma, vice president of Charity Care, which helps immunize people in more than 30 countries, including India, the South. is.” Sudan and Bangladesh.
“We can’t give countries all these vaccines, but there’s no way to use them,” he said, adding that the same infrastructure shots administered in the US are now needed elsewhere. “We had to deal with this problem in America, so why aren’t we now using that knowledge to deliver vaccines to the people who need them most?”
Sharma said more investment is needed to combat vaccine hesitation in developing countries, where there is a belief about the potential dangers of Western-made drugs.
“Leaders must agree to follow a coherent strategy to end the pandemic rather than a fragmented approach that prolongs the lifespan of this crisis,” said Gail Smith, CEO of The One Campaign.
GAVI’s Berkeley also said countries are increasingly demanding expensive messenger RNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are not as readily available as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which made up the bulk of COVAX’s supply last year.
The emergence of variants such as Delta and Omicron has prompted many countries to switch to mRNA vaccines, which provide more protection and compared to conventionally made vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Novavax or vaccines made by China and Russia. are in high demand globally.
,