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Biden, G-7 Leaders Plot Global Vaccination Surge to End Pandemic

U.S. President Joe Biden arrives to attend the Group of Seven Leaders Summit, in Newquay, U.K., on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. Photographer: Neil Hall/EPA/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) --The U.S. plans to buy 500 million doses of Pfizer Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine to share internationally as President Joe Biden prepares to join other Group of Seven leaders in a campaign to end the pandemic by distributing shots worldwide.

By Justin Sink
Jun 10, 2021, 3:06 AM – Updated on Jun 10, 2021, 5:38 AM
Word Count: 776

As Biden and other G-7 leaders gathered for the start of their summit in the U.K., their staffs were putting together a document that outlines a plan to end the Covid-19 pandemic by December 2022. At the summit in Cornwall, the presidents and prime ministers will pledge to deliver at least 1 billion extra doses of vaccines over the next year to help cover 80% of the world’s adult population, according to a draft communique seen by Bloomberg News.

The U.S. government will buy about 200 million doses this year to distribute through Covax, the World Health Organization-backed initiative aimed at securing an equitable global distribution of the vaccine, and about 300 million doses in the first half of next year, said a person familiar with the matter.

The vaccines will go to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, the person said. Biden will announce that plan on Thursday in remarks before the summit gets underway.

Read More: G-7 Plans 1 Billion Extra Covid Shots to End Pandemic Next Year

The G-7 countries also plan to make a commitment to hasten the shift from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles and to promote “green transitions” in developing countries, according to the draft communique.

Other topics covered in the document include demanding that Russia hold accountable the cyber criminals who carry out ransomware attacks from within its borders; and a pledge to confront forced labor in supply chains, particularly involving the garment and solar industries.

China is not mentioned by name in that part of the communique, but the Beijing government has come under intense international criticism over its treatment of the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group in the Xinjiang region.

The draft communique delves further into coronavirus policy and backs a common standard for travel that would include recognition of a person’s vaccination status.

Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet in Cornwall before the summit to announce a joint task force to explore options to resume travel between their countries. Before the pandemic, more than 5 million Britons visited the U.S. and more than 4.5 million Americans visited Britain every year, according to figures released by Johnson’s office.

Nations Still Struggling

Biden has come under rising pressure internationally to share his government’s vaccine stockpile with nations still hard-hit by the pandemic as the pace of the U.S. domestic vaccination campaign has slowed by about two-thirds since April.

Biden said before departing for Europe on Wednesday that he would announce a global vaccination strategy during his travels. He didn’t elaborate.

The plan to buy 500 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine was reported earlier by the Washington Post. Representatives for Pfizer didn’t immediately return requests for comment.

Pfizer and its vaccine partner, BioNTech SE, already have an agreement to supply Covax with 40 million doses, but the group pleaded with global leaders last month to provide far more, saying it needed to provide 2 billion doses this year.

China, meanwhile, has supplied 350 million doses to more than 80 developing countries around the world, state-backed China Daily reported, citing an official from the country’s top industry regulator. Two inactivated vaccines developed by state-owned Sinopharm and private vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech Ltd. have been greenlit by the World Health Organization for emergency use, paying the way for broader distribution around the world through Covax.

Covax ‘Shortfall’

“Even though Covax will have larger volumes available later in the year through the deals it has already secured with several manufacturers, if we do not address the current, urgent shortfall the consequences could be catastrophic,” Covax said in a statement.

Separately, Moderna Inc. said it’s interested in partnering with the U.S. government on possibly providing additional doses of it Covid-19 vaccine to help address the pandemic in low- and middle-income countries.

Spokesman Ray Jordan said in an email that the company wouldn’t provide additional details about any particular talks. The talks between Moderna and the U.S. were reported earlier by CNBC.

Moderna is in the process of expanding its manufacturing capacity so it can produce as much as 3 billion vaccine doses next year, compared with its goal of up to 1 billion this year.

(Updates with details on Chinese vaccines’ global rollout in the 14th paragraph.)

–With assistance from Riley Griffin, Alberto Nardelli, Tim Ross, Kitty Donaldson, Robert Langreth and Dong Lyu.

© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.
Information pertaining to Covid-19, vaccines, how to control the spread of the virus and potential treatments is ever-changing. Under the South African Disaster Management Act Regulation 11(5)(c) it is prohibited to publish information through any medium with the intention to deceive people on government measures to address COVID-19. We are therefore disabling the comment section on this article in order to protect both the commenting member and ourselves from potential liability. Should you have additional information that you think we should know, please email [email protected]
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