Considering that vaccinating the world’s population is THE answer to the Covid-19 pandemic, the G7 leaders in Carbis Bay (Cornwall) pledged on Sunday 13 June to provide 10 billion doses of vaccine to the poorest countries to end the pandemic by 2022.
“The priority is to ensure that the demand for vaccines can be met and it can be seen that the European Union has taken the lead on this. We are now being joined by partners to accelerate the movement, production and delivery of vaccine doses everywhere”, European Council President Charles Michel was pleased to announce (see EUROPE 12739/19).
During the G7, French President Emmanuel Macron even called for “vaccinating 60% of Africans by the first quarter of 2022”, and for pharmaceutical companies to donate 10% of their vaccines.
The leaders also pledged to prepare “for future pandemics” by stepping up international cooperation efforts, considering immediate global vaccination as a starting point. “At the same time, we will create the appropriate frameworks to strengthen our collective defences (...) by increasing and coordinating global manufacturing capacity on all continents, improving early warning systems”, they said.
See the final communiqué: https://bit.ly/3q2G6pX (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)