Rich countries can afford to donate Covax jabs, UNICEF says

G7 and EU nations can afford to donate more than 150 million vaccines to countries in need without compromising their own objectives, UNICEF said in a report carried by AFP.

The Group of Seven industrialized powers and the European Union could help close the world’s vaccine gap by sharing just 20 percent of their June, July and August stocks with the Covax jab scheme for poorer nations, a study by British firm Airfinity cited by AFP showed.

“And they could do this while still fulfilling their vaccination commitments to their own populations,” UNICEF director Henrietta Fore said.

UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund, is flying Covax doses to poorer countries due to its expertise in vaccine logistics.

Britain is due to host its fellow G7 members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States for a summit in June.

By that time, UNICEF said the Covax program — co-led by Gavi the Vaccine Alliance, along with the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations — will find itself 190 million doses short of what it had planned to distribute.

The program’s aim of ensuring the vaccination of 20 percent of populations in all countries by the end of this year “is at risk,” Bruce Aylward, the WHO lead on Covax, acknowledged on Monday.

It was possible to make up for the delays if countries in a position to do so could donate doses, he said in the AFP report.

“We determine our future right now,” he added.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus agreed.

“We need high-income countries that have contracted much of the immediate global supply of vaccines to share them now,” he said.

He insisted that “Covax works,” pointing out that the program had delivered some 65 million doses to 124 countries so far.

“But it is dependent on countries and manufacturers honoring their commitments.”