WHO To Provide 40 Million Doses Of COVID Vaccine To Poor Countries

Pfizer and Biotech will supply 40 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the poorest countries by next month. The WHO plans to deliver the vaccine to 20% of the affected population this year under its Covax scheme.

The WHO’s Covax scheme aims to provide the corona vaccine to the most affected populations in poor countries.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says the UN agency’s Covax scheme has reached an agreement with the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNtech to provide 40 million vaccines to poor countries. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva on Friday, January 22, Tedros said the decision by new US President Joe Biden to include the United States in the Covax scheme meant that the world body was close to fulfilling its promise.

Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, announced on Thursday (January 21st) that the United States would reject former President Donald Trump’s policy and join the Quix project. The World Health Organization’s Kovacs scheme aims to provide the coronavirus vaccine to 20 per cent of the poorest affected population this year.

Albert Bourla, chairman of the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, told a virtual conference in Geneva that the first batch of vaccines would be sent on a non-profit basis. “The corona vaccine should be available in developing countries as well as in other parts of the world,” he added.

The announcements from Geneva come at a time when the richest countries are spending millions of dollars on vaccines. Some countries are already using vaccines obtained under bilateral agreements. The European Union (EU) has expressed concern over the move.

AstraZeneca will provide an additional 150 million vaccines by the first quarter of 2021, according to Seth Berkley, chairman of the private and public fund for vaccination. Asked about the number of vaccines to be produced by global pharmaceutical companies this year, Berkley said: “We are talking about six to seven billion vaccines.” If the Chinese and Russian vaccines are safe and effective, they can also be included in the vaccine scheme.

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