UNITED NATIONS, Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has called on the world\u2019s richest nations to underwrite coronavirus vaccination in poorer countries, highlighting the need to raise some $60 billion over the next two years.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the regular briefing by the World Health Organization (WHO), and ahead of next month\u2019s G-7 summit, Brown, who is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, said inaction would only lead to greater global division.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy our failure to extend vaccination more rapidly to every country, we are choosing who lives and who dies\u201d, he warned.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I say the world is already too deeply divided between rich and poor to allow a new unbridgeable divide to become entrenched between the world\u2019s vaccinated who live, and the under-vaccinated who are at risk of dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
As prime minister, Brown hosted the G-20 summit in 2009, where the world\u2019s major economies committed an additional $1.1 trillion to address the fallout from the global financial crisis. He is now on a campaign to galvanize support to demand that the G-7 \u201cdeploy its wealth to end the disease\u201d.<\/p>\n
More COVID-19 cases were reported in the past two weeks than in the first six months of the pandemic, with India and Brazil accounting for half, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe G7 countries are the world\u2019s economic and political leaders. They\u2019re also home to many of the world\u2019s vaccine producers. We will only solve the vaccine crisis with the leaders of these countries\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Tedros reported that the landmark global collaboration developing and delivering COVID-19 vaccines to countries worldwide, known as the ACT Accelerator, remains $19 billion underfunded. Up to $45 billion will be needed next year to inoculate most adults.
\n\u201cWe face a shared threat that we can only overcome with shared solutions\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSharing financial resources, sharing vaccine doses and production capacity, and sharing technology, know-how and waiving intellectual property.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Brown, mass global vaccination is not an act of charity, but \u201cthe best insurance policy for the world\u201d. Though costing billions now, the result will be \u201ctrillions of additional economic output, made possible when trade resumes in a COVID-free world.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $60 billion in funding is required not only for vaccines, but also for vital medical supplies, diagnostics and medical oxygen \u201ccurrently and shamefully in short supply in India and elsewhere\u201d.<\/p>\n
He provided a formula for rich countries to shoulder the cost, based on national income, current wealth and benefits from the resumption of trade.<\/p>\n
The breakdown would see the United States covering 27 per cent, Europe 23 per cent, Japan six per cent and Britain five per cent. Australia, Canada and South Korea would pay two per cent each.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say to the G-7\u2026you have the power and the ability to pay for nearly two-thirds of the cost and secure a historic breakthrough by agreeing an equitable burden sharing formula that could cover global health provision\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
Brown added that the world\u2019s major economies, the G-20, could cover more than 80 per cent of the cost and donate urgently needed vaccine doses, while the world\u2019s 30 richest countries could pay for more than 90 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the same burden-sharing formula could also be applied so that instead of the familiar pandemic cycle of panic now and neglect later, the world invests now when there is a cash shortfall, and for the future in pandemic preparedness \u2026to ensure that even if future outbreaks happen, pandemics become preventable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Former British prime minister Gordon Brown has called on the world\u2019s richest nations to underwrite coronavirus vaccination in poorer countries, highlighting the need to raise some $60 billion over the next two years. Speaking during the regular briefing by the World Health Organization […]<\/p>\n
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