UK to donate 100m Covid-19 doses to the world

The UK is to donate 100 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to the world within the next year, prime minister Boris Johnson has announced.

The news, announced ahead of the G7 Summit, comes as US president Jo Biden has pledged 500 million doses of Pfzier’s Covid-19 vaccine to 92 low and middle-income countries.

The UK is aiming to donate 5 million doses by the end of September, with deliveries beginning in the coming weeks.  A further 95 million doses are set to be delivered within the next year – with 80% of the 100 million doses going to the equitable vaccine sharing scheme Covax. By the end of 2021 the UK is hoping to have deliver 30 million Covid-19 vaccines.

G7 leaders are expected to announce that they will provide at least 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses to the world and also expand vaccine manufacturing to help achieve that goal.

Prime minister Boris Johnson said: “Since the start of this pandemic the UK has led the way in efforts to protect humanity against this deadly disease. Over a year ago we funded the development of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on the basis it would be distributed at cost to the world.

This unprecedented model, which puts people squarely above profit, means over half a billion doses have been administered in 160 countries so far.

As a result of the success of the UK’s vaccine programme we are now in a position to share some of our surplus doses with those who need them. In doing so we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good."

At the G7 Summit I hope my fellow leaders will make similar pledges so that, together, we can vaccinate the world by the end of next year and build back better from coronavirus.”

At the G7 Summit, it’s also expected that world leaders will discuss how pharmaceutical companies to adopt the Oxford-AstraZeneca model of providing vaccines of cost for the duration of the pandemic.

Prime minister Johnson has been under increasing pressure from activists to agree to agree to a temporary waiver of Covid-19 IP rights, in order to help scale up the manufacture of vaccines.

In April this year, president Biden announced that the US will support a temporary waiver of IP rights related to Covid-19, after former heads of states, academics and others signed an open letter urging him to do so.

A letter arranged by social justice organisation, Global Justice Now to prime minister Johnson has garnered over 400 signatures urging the UK to do the same.

Charity Oxfam has questioned the UK’s commitment of donating30 million doses by the end of the year, calling it a “drop in the ocean.”

Oxfam’s health policy manager, Anna Marriott said: “The UK's pledge to donate 30 million doses by the end of the year represents just 0.4 per cent of the doses needed by the nearly four billion people depending on COVAX for vaccines. This is a drop in the ocean and certainly doesn't put people squarely above profit.

“It’s simply not good enough for prime minister Boris Johnson to point to a trickle of donations and the AstraZeneca vaccine as the UK’s solution to a global pandemic, especially when AstraZeneca’s supply for low and middle income countries is massively delayed due to the scale of the COVID crisis in India.

“The UK should do the right thing, alongside other G7 leaders like President Biden and President Macron by supporting the TRIPS waiver and insisting the vaccine know-how and technology is shared, which would help to dramatically increase global supply.”