Boris Johnson committed 500 million pounds ($636 million) through the global COVAX vaccine-procurement pool to help 92 of the world’s poorest countries obtain a coronavirus vaccine, should one become available.
He announced that the U.K. is boosting its funding for the World Health Organization by 30%, to 340 million pounds ($432 million) over the next four years.
Johnson is seeking to counter the impression that Britain is retreating from the world stage or becoming more protectionist in the wake of its departure from the European Union. The U.K. left the bloc’s political institutions in January and will make an economic break when a transition period ends on Dec. 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday that the coronavirus pandemic has frayed the bonds between nations, and urged world leaders to unite against the “common foe” of COVID-19
Johnson, who made the remarks in a prerecorded speech to the United Nations General Assembly, said that, nine months into the pandemic, “the very notion of the international community looks tattered.”
“Never again must we wage 193 separate campaigns against the same enemy," he said.
Johnson set out a plan for preventing another global pandemic, including a network of zoonotic research labs around the world to identify dangerous pathogens before they leap from animals to humans.
Johnson — who contracted COVID-19 in the spring and spent three nights in intensive care -- also called for countries to share data to create a global early-warning system for disease outbreaks, and urged countries to stop slapping export controls on essential goods, as many have done during the pandemic.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/boris-johnson-urges-world-leaders-unite-against-covid19-boris-johnson-world-leaders-covid19-coronavirus-pandemic-world-leaders-b623929.html
G20 leaders call for 'affordable, equitable' access to Covid-19 vaccine
"We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives," French President Emmanuel Macron told the summit.
Brussels
Leaders of the 20 biggest economies on Saturday vowed to ensure a fair distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, drugs and tests around the world and do what was needed to support poorer countries struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people, consistent with members' commitments to incentivize innovation," the leaders said in a draft G20 communique seen by Reuters. "We recognise the role of extensive immunization as a global public good."
The twin crises of the pandemic and an uneven, uncertain global recovery dominated the first day of a two-day summit under the chairmanship of Saudi Arabia, which hands off the rotating presidency of the G20 to Italy next month.
The Covid-19 pandemic, which has thrown the global economy into a deep recession this year, and efforts needed to underpin an economic rebound in 2021, were at the top of the agenda.
"We must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all peoples," Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz said in his opening remarks.
G20 leaders are concerned that the pandemic might further deepen global divisions between the rich and the poor.
"We need to avoid at all costs a scenario of a two-speed world where only the richer can protect themselves against the virus and restart normal lives," French President Emmanuel Macron told the summit.
To do that, the European Union urged G20 leaders quickly to put more money into a global project for vaccines, tests and therapeutics - called Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator - and its COVAX facility to distribute vaccines.
"At the G20 Summit I called for $4.5 billion to be invested in ACT Accelerator by the end of 2020, for procurement & delivery of COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines everywhere," European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said on Twitter.
"We need to show global solidarity," she said.
Germany was contributing more than 500 million euros ($592.65 million) to the effort, Chancellor Angela Merkel told the G20, urging other countries to do their part, according to a text of her remarks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to provide Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine to other countries and said Moscow was also preparing a second and third vaccine.
China, where the pandemic originated a year ago, also offered to cooperate on vaccines. China has five home-grown candidates for a vaccine undergoing the last phase of trials.
"China is willing to strengthen cooperation with other countries in the research and development, production, and distribution of vaccines," President Xi Jinping told the G20 Summit.
"We will ... offer help and support to other developing countries, and work hard to make vaccines a public good that citizens of all countries can use and can afford," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who lost the U.S. presidential election but has refused to concede to former Vice President Joe Biden, addressed G20 leaders briefly before going golfing. He discussed the need to work together to restore economic growth, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a summary released late on Saturday.
https://www.asiainsurancepost.com/ecoinvestdemography/g20-leaders-call-affordable-equitable-access-covid-19-vaccine
11/13/2020, 2:20:39 AM
Aware that covid-19 somewhere is covid-19 everywhere, the EU, France, Spain, the UK, and the Gates Foundation, among others, have taken a new step to ensure that 92 low- and middle-income countries have equal access to treatments against the virus
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The Gates Foundation had been warning for days that it was going to present new details of its strategy to develop and distribute vaccines to the least developed countries of the world.
And this afternoon it became known: a millionaire injection that not only comes from the marriage of philanthropists, but from the entire European Union and from governments such as Spanish, French and British among others.
Melinda Gates, co-president of the foundation, announced a contribution of 70 million dollars this Thursday in the framework of the Paris Peace Forum, a meeting in which various heads of state, international organizations and leaders of civil society and the The private sector have met to discuss new ways to respond to the covid-19 pandemic and from which not only the Gates donation comes: the participating States and organizations commit to allocate more than 500 million dollars (about 423 million euros) to promote the investigation, according to what the organizers of the event announced this Thursday.
France and Spain, in particular, will contribute 100 and 50 million dollars, respectively; the Government of the United Kingdom will contribute an additional pound sterling for every four dollars announced and the European Commission will allocate another one hundred million, as reported by the organizers in statements collected by Reuters.
More information
"25 years of vaccination have been erased in 25 weeks"
A donation of 28,000 million euros is sought to end the covid-19
A coalition of funders and scientists is born so that the South is not left out of the trials against the coronavirus
All donor governments and private organizations are part of the ACT-Accelerator initiative, a program designed to guarantee global access to tests, therapies and vaccines for covid-19 that launched last April with an initial investment of about 127 million dollars (107, in euros).
The contributions announced today are new support to mobilize the billions needed to finance the fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and that have not yet been gathered.
Last June, this consortium already warned of the urgency of contributing 28,000 million euros to end the disease.
This announcement comes at a time when infections from the new coronavirus have reached a record 52 million people worldwide.
At the same time, Pfizer and BioNTech have announced that their vaccine against the disease is 90% effective and, quickly, governments around the world have promised that they will supply doses to all their citizens.
The European Union announced on Wednesday the purchase of 300 million doses.
And in Spain, the Minister of Health, Salvador Illa, has stated that Spain will receive 20 million at the beginning of 2021.
But then there is the other half of the world.
From Nepal to Morocco and from Guatemala to Zimbabwe, there are 92 countries that are home to more than half of the planet's population and that are considered low or middle income, according to the classification made by the World Bank of all territories according to your gross national income.
This immense population group also lives affected by covid-19, but they, due to their socioeconomic circumstances, will have more complicated access to vaccines and treatments against the disease.
It is to these countries and to those people that the efforts of the mechanisms created as a result of the pandemic are directed, and they are the ones who will receive the 500 million dollars, including the 70 announced by the Gates Foundation.
“As things are now, these countries will not have enough doses.
The estimate is that, at most, they will only be able to cover 20% of their people, so that four out of every five people would continue to be vulnerable to the disease ", explained Melinda Gates about what has been described as a tragedy for the whole world And not just for the poorest nations because, he said, rich nations run the risk of re-infection if the vaccine doesn't reach everyone.
“Covid-19 anywhere is covid-19 everywhere.
So we have to make sure that everyone has equal access to tests, medicines and vaccines when they are available, no matter where in the world they live, ”the philanthropist reasoned.
Of the 70 million contributed by its foundation, 50 will go to the financial mechanism COVAX, of GAVI, the Global Vaccination Alliance, winner of the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation 2020 for improving access to immunization of the most vulnerable children in the world .
Specifically, 760 million since its creation.
This mechanism was born last June to ensure that the future vaccine against covid-19 also reaches the most disadvantaged.
With this new contribution, the Foundation has already donated a total of 156 million dollars.
The remaining amount (20 million) is contributed to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international alliance created in 2014 in the wake of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa to advance research and drive the development of other Promising vaccines as their clinical trials conclude because they have greater potential to be manufactured on a large scale and at a lower cost, so they could be better adapted to the needs of low- and middle-income countries.
Because the problem with Pfizer's covid vaccine is that it is very expensive to produce, as explained in a virtual meeting with various media, including EL PAÍS, the CEO of the Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman.
"[Pfizer's vaccine] uses RNA technology in a pioneering way, it is the first time that it has been successfully done in a vaccine, but that makes it more difficult and expensive to manufacture."
Suzman also recalled that immunization requires to be preserved and, therefore, transported, at a very cold temperature (minus 80 degrees), which makes distribution in developing countries difficult.
“That does not mean that it is impossible.
And in fact, our team, along with the GAVI team and with Pfizer, are looking at several ways we could help support this. "
In this sense, he recalled that last September the Gates Foundation and 16 large pharmaceutical companies issued a statement warning of the need for broad and equitable access to vaccines in developing countries and asking rich countries to help support those efforts.
And Pfizer was among the signers.
Rapid tests for Africa
Another 32 million dollar agreement was signed last Tuesday between the LumiraDX company, the Gates Foundation, the African Union, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the African Medical Supply Platform (AMSP). ), among other organizations, to expand access to rapid, accurate and equitable COVID-19 testing in Africa.
Thus, LumiraDX will provide five thousand portable rapid diagnostic tests and antigen tests to the 55 member states of the African Union.
"Testing technology that delivers results in minutes, not days or weeks, is an important part of the African Union Partnership to Accelerate Testing for COVID-19 (PACT) initiative," said Dr. John Nkengasong, Executive Director Africa CDC, in statements contained in a LumiraDX press release.
https://newsrnd.com/news/2020-11-12-historic-donation--500-million-dollars-so-that-the-coronavirus-vaccine-reaches-everyone-equally.rylkb6liYD.html
EU increases its contribution to COVAX to €500 million to secure COVID-19 vaccines for low and middle-income countries
The European Union has announced today it will contribute an additional €100 million in grant funding to support the COVAX Facility to secure access to the future COVID-19 vaccine in low and middle-income countries. The funds will complement the €400 million in guarantees the EU already committed for COVAX, making the Union one of the leading donors. With this new contribution, the EU is further stepping up investment in support of the global recovery.
At the virtual Paris Peace Forum, where world leaders and international organizations are discussing the global response and the recovery from the pandemic, President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “In the midst of the wrecking COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that a global recovery will only be possible if safe and effective vaccines are available to all who need it. The EU is increasing its support to the COVAX Facility to this end and I am proud that Team Europe is a leading contributor to COVAX. Together, we can make the global recovery happen."
Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships, said: “The EU is demonstrating we are serious about our commitments to leave no one behind and make the COVID-19 vaccine a global public good. With this additional €100 million in grant funding, the EU join forces with international partners, in a spirit of solidarity and multilateralism, and will help secure purchase options for future COVID-19 vaccines for those who need it the most in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific countries.”
Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Of all the lessons we have learned this year, the clearest is that there is strength in solidarity. COVAX is an example of this. With this additional contribution we are one step closer to the objective of funding the purchase of 2 billion vaccines for the most vulnerable populations in 92 low and middle-income countries. But more support will be required next year to produce and distribute a safe and efficacious vaccine across the world as soon as it becomes available. We will not relent in this effort.”
The proposed allocation of €100 million from the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) general reserve will adopt the form of a grant contribution to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, as administrator of COVAX Facility, the world's facility for universal and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines.
To date, a total of 184 countries participate in the COVAX Facility, being 92 of them low and middle-income economies eligible to get access to COVID-19 vaccines through Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Through this grant, the Commission and its partners will secure purchase options for future COVID-19 vaccines for all the participants in the Facility, including African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries.
This grant support will strategically complement the €400 million of bank guarantees the EU will make available to Gavi through the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the framework of the European Fund for Sustainable Development (EFSD), raising the total EU contribution for COVAX to €500 million.*
Several EU Member States are contributing as well to COVAX and its underlying objectives, highlighting another example of the power of Team Europe, that is mobilising more than €870 million for COVAX, including the €100 million in EU grant and €400 million in guarantees. The figure also includes new contributions announced today by France (€100 million), Spain (€50 million) and Finland (€2 million).
Vaccines will be procured and delivered to countries by UNICEF Supply Division and the PAHO's Revolving Fund for Access to Vaccines.
Background
COVAX is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a global collaboration to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
The COVAX Facility aims to purchase 2 billion doses by the end of 2021. It will help to develop a diversified portfolio of vaccines, negotiated with different suppliers, and covering different scientific technologies, delivery times and prices. The COVAX Facility is a risk-sharing mechanism: it reduces the risk for manufacturers who invest without being sure about future demand, and it reduces the risk that countries would fail to secure access to a viable vaccine.
The European Commission is committed to ensuring that everyone who needs a vaccine gets it, anywhere in the world and not only at home, and to promote global health. This is why it has raised almost €16 billion since 4 May 2020 under the Coronavirus Global Response, the global action for universal access to tests, treatments and vaccines against coronavirus and for the global recovery. Team Europe's contribution was as follows: EU Member States (€3.1 billion), European Commission (over €1.4 billion) and EIB (almost €2 billion pledged in May and €4.9 billion pledged in June).
The EU's participation in COVAX will be complementary with the ongoing EU negotiations with vaccine companies launched under the EU Vaccines Strategy. The EU's efforts to develop and produce an effective vaccine will benefit all in the global community. The EU investment in scaling up manufacturing capacity will be to the service of all countries in need. Through its Advanced Purchase Agreements, it requires manufacturers to make their production capacity available to supply all countries and calls for the free flow of vaccines and materials with no export restrictions. For instance, the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-GSK, with whom the Commission concluded an Advanced Purchase Agreement in September, will endeavour to provide a significant portion of their vaccine supply through the COVAX facility.
World leaders and international organizations are participating in this virtual third edition of The Paris Peace Forum, initiated by French President Emmanuel Macron to revive collective governance, international cooperation and multilateralism at a time of growing challenges and when international norms and institutions are being challenged. Discussions this year, under the overarching theme ‘Bouncing back to a better planet', will focus on improving the global governance of health and promoting green financing.
For More Information
EU global response to coronavirus
*Updated on 16/11/2020 at 10:20
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2075
