The G-20 must act now to vaccinate the world
Jul 11,2021 - Last updated at Jul 11,2021
By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Juliana Bartels
SIRACUSA — When G-20 finance ministers meet in Venice on July 9-10, they should adopt a plan to immunise the world against COVID-19. Every vaccine-producing country will be in the room: The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, China, Russia and India. Together, these countries produce enough doses to complete the immunisation process for the entire globe by early 2022. Yet the world still lacks a plan to get it done.
The existing global effort to bring vaccine coverage to poor countries, known as the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility, has fallen disastrously short of what is needed. Vaccine-producing countries have used their output to vaccinate their own populations — with many millions of doses to spare. And vaccine-producing companies have made secret deals with governments to sell vaccines bilaterally rather than through COVAX at a lower cost.