By Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland, Reuters — Thursday 10 June 2021
The United States raised pressure on other G7 leaders on Thursday by pledging to donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to the world’s poorest countries — the largest ever vaccine donation by a single country. The $3.5 billion commitment, made on the eve of the G7 summit in Cornwall, will see 200 million doses delivered in 2021 and 300 million in the first half of 2022 at a not-for-profit price. Washington said it expected no quid pro quo for the gift.
G7 leaders have expressed the goal of vaccinating the world by end of 2022 to halt the pandemic that has killed more than 3.9 million people. Only 2.2 billion of a global population of nearly 8 billion have been vaccinated so far, with vaccination efforts heavily correlated with wealth. Anti-poverty campaign group Oxfam welcomed the pledge as helpful but called it “a drop in the bucket,” urging transformation toward more distributed vaccine manufacturing and removal of intellectual property constraints so qualified producers worldwide can produce billions more low-cost doses.