Covid-19: Vaccine surplus in G20 countries

NATIONAL NEWS - As we mark the second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Open Society Foundations have released some disturbing statistics.

Statement from Mark Malloch-Brown, President of the Open Society Foundations

“Two years ago today, 11 March, the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Sadly, our response ever since has been anything but global. Everyone knows that nobody will be safe from COVID until everyone is, yet we still fail to act like it.

G20 nations are now sitting on a vaccine surplus of 173 million more doses than their populations can use. Meanwhile in low-income countries, just 13% of people have received even a single shot.

The story of COVID-19 to date has been one of disastrous nationalism and inequity that has prolonged a virus which has now claimed 6 million lives and pushed over a hundred million people into extreme poverty.

We have to learn to do better – and fast, before another dangerous variant, or pandemic, emerges. The only way we will succeed is to make vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments affordable and accessible to everyone, everywhere.

There are over 100 facilities globally that could start producing more vaccines if pharmaceutical companies shared not only IP but manufacturing know-how.

For too long the Global South has been pushed aside. It is beyond time that we unleashed its full manufacturing power in order to bring COVID under control everywhere and prepare for inevitable pandemics of the future too.

Funding the global COVID-19 response remains the smartest investment the world can make.

The challenges before us, from Ukraine to a looming global economic crisis, will not allow us to prolong this pandemic.

We have seen leadership in the last week from Germany on their funding commitment of $1.22 billion toward the WHO’s global partnership for equitable access to tests, treatments, vaccines, and personal protective equipment.

This week, new U.S. funding has tragically fallen out of the latest federal spending bill in Congress.

Two years into this pandemic, world leaders need to say ‘enough is enough’ and deliver on their promises.”