The G7 is under pressure to press ahead with its vaccine commitments

Enrique Rubio

Falmouth (UK), June 11 (EFE). – It should have been the “peak of vaccinations”, but it runs the risk of default. The G7’s commitment to donate at least a billion doses to developing countries has left a trail of dissatisfaction among experts and NGOs, who carefully scrutinize any progress that comes from the meeting.

For the first time in a year and a half, since the outbreak of an unknown disease in the world’s life, international leaders are meeting each other in person. He acknowledged the host, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the opening of the summit that the physical contact “really make a difference.”

The United Kingdom announced from the rooftops that it intends to produce the Group of Seven countries with a strong plan to end the epidemic.

The seven most developed democracies are expected to announce that they will donate one billion doses to poor countries, although American Joe Biden already opened fire on Thursday by announcing the purchase of 500 million doses from Pfizer for delivery to low-income countries, Johnson promised. Another hundred million.

Disappointed in the non-governmental organizations

These numbers in themselves sound like stratospheric, but experts and organizations have contextualized them to demand a much greater effort.

“They are a drop in the ocean,” says Amnesty International. “This is a failure,” Oxfam attacked. NGOs have warned that about 11,000 million doses are needed to stop the epidemic, so commitments from the Group of Seven (which own 45% of global wealth) appear scarce.

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard opined that a billion doses “would not even come close to covering the entire population of India, let alone the entire population of the world”.

“It doesn’t approach[needs]and it doesn’t address root problems either. Not only is it not ambitious, but it is self-interested, especially when you consider the data that the G7 countries have a surplus of 3,000 million doses by the end of the year,” Callamard said.

As for the NGO declarations, only “ridiculous semimedidas and inadequate gestures” are expected from wealthier nations that avoid “fulfilling their international obligations in distributing vaccines, tests and treatments, and sharing biotechnology”.

Similarly, the People’s Alliance for Vaccines urged G7 leaders to support Biden and French Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to temporarily release patents to popularize their production.

“If the best G7 leaders could do was to donate one billion doses, this summit would be a failure,” said Anna Marriott, a spokeswoman for the coalition and health officer at Oxfam.

The United Nations calls for a doubling of production

Without criticizing the rich countries’ proposal, which he said was “very welcome”, the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, urged governments to move forward with achieving that, at least, productive capacity to prepare for the coronavirus.

“So far, the distribution of vaccines has been very uneven and unfair,” the Portuguese said, stressing that it is in everyone’s interest that the world’s population receive their injection as soon as possible.

For Guterres, “it is clear that much more is needed” than the promised billion doses and the solution is through a “global vaccination plan” that includes the parties involved.

This strategy will be designed by the emergency group with the support of multilateral financial institutions and in cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, and its goal will be to double production capacity.

“I support India and South Africa’s patent initiative, but it is not enough. They need tools for technology transfer, and we must also look closely at supply chains, which is a major problem,” the UN Secretary-General insisted in a conference call, before joining to G7 tomorrow. EFE

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