President Macron of France, has pledged that his country will increase the amount of COVID-19 doses to poorer countries, as world leaders call for a people’s vaccine.
The French President in a video sequence broadcast during the charitable organization Global Citizen concert in Paris on Saturday, said that his country will increase their COVID-19 doses to poorer countries from 60 to 120 million, AFP reports.
“The injustice is that in other continents, obviously, vaccination is very late. Because of us, collectively. In Africa, barely 3% of the population is vaccinated, we have to go faster, stronger “,
“France is committed to doubling the number of doses it gives. We will go from 60 million to 120 million doses offered. That is to say more doses, to date, than we have done. in the country, “he said.
According to the report by AFP, the United States also announced on Wednesday its intention to double its donations of vaccines against Covid-19, bringing the total of doses promised to poor countries to over 1.1 billion, with President Joe Biden making clear his intention to lead the global response to the pandemic.
“We need other high-income countries to put into practice their ambitious pledges,” Biden said.
The European Union, with which the United States intends to cooperate closely, will distribute more than 500 million doses.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a video message to the UN released on Tuesday, said “ensuring fair and equitable distribution of vaccines around the world is a pressing priority.”
China intends “to provide a total of 2 billion doses of vaccine to the world by the end of the year,” he said, repeating a figure already given by the Chinese authorities, who do not however specify in which proportion these are sales or donations.
“Concrete commitments”
According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) a few days ago, Africa, in particular, will miss almost 500 million doses compared to the global target of 40% of vaccinated by the end of the year. ‘year. Missing doses, the Covax mechanism will ship around 150 million fewer vaccines to Africa than expected. Taking this deficit into account, 470 million doses of vaccine expected on the continent will enable only 17% of the population to be vaccinated.
Emmanuel Macron also announced “concrete commitments” to help UNICEF organize vaccination campaigns in African countries, “and put us in a position to help healthcare systems”.
The French president has also pledged to redirect 20% in favour of a revival of African economies from the special drawing rights that it receives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). According to Mr. Macron, “if all the great powers do like France, then we will reach 100 billion for Africa”.
He finally pledged that Paris supports “up to 333 million euros” programs in favour of education in Africa.
What President Buhari Said About COVID-19 Doses?
This gesture from world leaders is clearly a piece of good news for Africa, especially Nigeria, as President Muhammadu Buhari a few days ago, announced that Nigeria will be joining the urgent global call for a People’s Vaccine for COVID-19. The President endorsed the initiative and released an official public statement in favour of the campaign.
“Learning from the painful lessons from a history of unequal access in dealing with diseases such as HIV we must heed the warning that “those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it”,” said Mr Buhari. “Only a People’s Vaccine with equality and solidarity at its core can protect all of humanity and get our societies safely running again. A bold international agreement cannot wait.”
The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling on pharmaceutical corporations and governments to:
- Prevent monopoly on vaccine production by making public funding for research and development conditional on research institutions and pharmaceutical companies sharing all information, data, biological material, know-how and intellectual property. The WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool provides the mechanism for such sharing.
- Prevent monopoly on vaccine supply by enabling as many manufacturers as possible, including in developing countries, to produce the vaccines.
- Implement fair allocation of the vaccine that prioritizes health workers and other at-risk groups in all countries. Vaccination programmes should include marginalized groups, including refugees, prisoners and people living in slums and other crowded housing conditions. Allocation between and within countries should be based on need and not ability to pay.
- Provide the vaccine free of charge at the point of use.
- Ensure the full participation of the governments of developing countries as well as global civil society in decision-making forums about the vaccines (and other COVID-19 technologies) and ensure transparency and accountability of all decisions.