The United States is providing more than $11 billion for the global Covid-19 response. The money will help support broad and equitable global vaccine access, mitigate secondary impacts of Covid-19 and boost international pandemic preparedness, the Department of State announced on April 27. Earlier, in February, the US contributed $2 billion to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in order to support COVAX to provide Covid-19 vaccines to 92 low and middle-income countries. It also pledged another $2 billion to COVAX. COVAX is the vaccines pillar of ACT-Accelerator, a ground-breaking global collaboration that was launched in April 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to Covid-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. The support is thus designed to help control the pandemic and slow the emergence of new variants as well as helping restart the global economy. Moreover, the US announced plans to share some 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine with countries in need as soon as it receives federal approval in the coming months, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. ACT-Accelerator appeals for adequate funding The ACT Accelerator has mobilised $14 billion in commitments so far from public, private, and multilateral funders. However, it needs another $19 billion to develop and deliver the tests, treatments, and vaccines needed to bring Covid-19 under control, according to the WHO. This has prompted the WHO to encourage governments around the world to work with ACT-Accelerator partners to fund, share and scale up the tools the world needs to bring an end to the acute phase of the virus. So far, COVAX facility has delivered more than 40 million doses to 119 economies. The Facility is supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities, and buying supply, ahead of time so that at least 2 billion doses can be fairly distributed to the most high-risk and highly exposed populations globally by the end of 2021. “One year after the launch of the ACT Accelerator, world leaders face a choice: invest in saving lives by treating the cause of the pandemic everywhere, now, or continue to spend trillions on the consequences with no end in sight,” WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom said on April 23, 2021, during a virtual event to mark the first anniversary of ACT Accelerator. “With a remaining funding gap of US$19 billion for 2021 and limited supply of products, we can only end the pandemic by funding, sharing, and scaling-up access to the tools we need to fight the disease. The time to ACT is now,” Tedros said. The global economy risks losing up to $9.2 trillion The International Chamber of Commerce estimates that the global economy stands to lose as much as $ 9.2 trillion if governments fail to ensure developing economy access to Covid-19 vaccines. Yet, fully financing the ACT-Accelerator for 2021 would cost less than 1 per cent of what governments are spending on stimulus packages to treat the consequences of Covid-19. Figures from WHO indicate that over 3 million people have so far died from Covid-19, infections around the world are more than 140 million, while over 100 million people have been pushed into poverty as a result of the pandemic.
