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Joe Biden and the leaders of the G7 group of rich democracies will pledge Friday to boost vaccine supplies to the developing world, though divisions remain over how fast the West should share “excess” doses.
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, will host the virtual meeting, which will focus on the fight against Covid-19 and efforts to address climate change. China is also expected to be discussed.
It is the first meeting of G7 leaders since April and the first that Biden has attended since he assumed the US presidency. Under Donald Trump, the G7 was a largely ineffective and, at times, contentious forum.
But Biden’s decisions to join the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, which the United States will re-enter on Friday, have raised hopes that a multilateral approach could begin to produce results in both areas in 2021.
This week, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said that Europe and the United States should urgently allocate up to 5 percent of their current vaccine supplies to developing countries where Covid-19 inoculation campaigns have only just begun and China and Russia. they are offering to fill the void.
In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: “The enemy of multilateralism as we speak, now that we have a new American commitment, is slowness and ineffectiveness.”
Johnson, who is hosting a G7 summit in Cornwall in June, will urge leaders to step up efforts to vaccinate the developing world against Covid-19. In November it will also host the UN’s COP26 climate conference in Glasgow.
At the G7 meeting on Friday, Johnson will urge rich countries to back a new 100-day target for developing vaccines for future emerging diseases.
The UK has ordered more than 400 million doses of various Covid-19 vaccines, so there will be many left over once all adults have been inoculated. Johnson wants leftover vaccines delivered to the developing world.
A UK government official said more than half of the country’s overdose would go to Covax, a WHO-led initiative aimed at ensuring equitable global access to coronavirus vaccines. The UK government has donated £ 548 million to the scheme.
Johnson will urge the G7 to further increase funding for Covax. In December, the US pledged $ 4 billion for the project.
But the Biden administration indicated that it would not donate any doses of coronavirus vaccine to developing countries until there was a plentiful supply of injections in the US, in a firm rejection of Macron’s proposal.
“Our current focus is vaccinating Americans, getting injections here,” an official said during a briefing with reporters. Another official said Biden had asked administration staff to explore options for donating “surplus” vaccines “once there is a sufficient supply” to meet domestic demand.
However, the second official said the US would make $ 2 billion in funding available to Covax “almost immediately.”
