GENEVA • The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that Covid-19 is moving faster than the vaccines, and said the Group of Seven's (G-7) vow to share a billion doses with poorer nations was simply not enough.
Global health leaders also warned the pledge was too little, too late, with more than 11 billion shots needed.
Faced with outrage over disparities in jab access, the G-7 industrialised powers pledged during a weekend summit in Britain to take their total dose donations to more than one billion, up from 130 million promised in February.
"I welcome the announcement that G-7 countries will donate 870 million (new) vaccine doses, primarily through Covax," World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists.
"This is a big help, but we need more, and we need them faster. Right now, the virus is moving faster than the global distribution of vaccines. More than 10,000 people are dying every day... these communities need vaccines, and they need them now, not next year."
While people in many wealthy nations are enjoying a return to a sense of normalcy thanks to high vaccination rates, the shots remain scarce in poorer parts of the world.
In terms of doses administered, the imbalance between the G-7 and low-income countries, as defined by the World Bank, is 73 to one.
Many of the donated G-7 doses will be filtered through Covax, a global body charged with ensuring equitable vaccine distribution.
Run by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), it has to date shipped more than 87 million vaccine doses to 131 countries, far fewer than anticipated. The WHO wants at least 70 per cent of the world's population vaccinated by the next G-7 meeting in Germany next year. "To do that, we need 11 billion doses. The G-7 and G-20 can make this happen," said Dr Tedros.
Medical charity Doctors Without Borders questioned how sincere the G-7 was in pursuing vaccine equity. "We need to see more clarity around the actual number of doses donated, and exactly how long it's going to take to translate their pledges into real impact and access," the medical charity's Hu Yuanqiong said.
The G-7 anti-pandemic battle plan includes commitments to avert future pandemics by slashing the time taken to develop and license vaccines to under 100 days, reinforcing global surveillance and strengthening the WHO. But observers voiced scepticism at their willingness to follow through on the last point especially.
"I will believe (that) point when the contributions to WHO are increased," tweeted Professor Ilona Kickbusch, founding director and chair of the Global Health Centre in Geneva.
Others stressed the need to quickly resolve the issue of vaccine patent protections, to boost production. Full-fledged negotiations towards a possible suspension of intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines, as well as other medical tools needed to battle the pandemic, have just begun at the World Trade Organisation after months of contentious debate.
G-7 leaders "say they want to vaccinate the world by the end of next year, but their actions show they care more about protecting the monopolies and patents of pharmaceutical giants", said Mr Max Lawson, Oxfam's head of inequity policy.
Outgoing UN aid chief Mark Lowcock also slammed the G-7 on Monday. "These sporadic, small-scale, charitable handouts from rich countries to poor countries is not a serious plan and it will not bring the pandemic to an end," Mr Lowcock, who steps down on Friday, said.
The WHO and its partners also highlighted the need for funds to overcome the pandemic. More than US$16 billion (S$21 billion) is still needed this year to fully fund efforts to speed up production and access to Covid-19 diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
That figure represents less that 1 per cent of annual global defence expenditure, the WHO's emergencies director Michael Ryan pointed out. "Surely we can afford 1 per cent of that to save lives and bring this pandemic to an end."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
