IBA President applauds US pledge to donate 500 million vaccine doses to low and lower-middle-income countries

Friday 18 June 2021

Image credit: archna nautiyal / Shutterstock.com (left) ​​​​​​​Dimitris Barletis / Shutterstock.com (right)

The International Bar Association (IBA), the global voice of the legal profession, applauds President Joseph R Biden’s decision to donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccines to struggling nations.

IBA President Sternford Moyo, Senior Partner and Chairman at Scanlen & Holderness law firm in Zimbabwe, commented: ‘The donation of half a billion doses by the United States is a step towards more equitable vaccine distribution. I applaud President Joe Biden’s and the United States’ decision to make the donations to countries in need. It is encouraging that world leaders are better working together to combat the pandemic and are discarding the short-sightedness of focusing only on their respective nations, because high cases of COVID-19 and variants anywhere pose a heightened threat to COVID being contracted elsewhere.’​​​​​​​

On 10 June 2021, President Biden announced that the United States will purchase and donate 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccines to countries designated as low and lower-middle economies and to the African Union to help combat the pandemic around the world. This commitment is part of a greater donation by the G-7 countries – the world's seven largest so-called advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States – who announced a donation of 1 billion vaccines. The United States will be responsible for half of these donations. In the communiqué released by the G-7 summit, recently held in Cornwall from 11–13 June, the G-7 leaders stated that their ‘international priority is to accelerate the rollout of safe and effective, accessible and affordable vaccines for the poorest countries, noting the role of extensive immunisation as a global public good.’

This commitment by the G-7 leaders is a start to vaccinating the global population against COVID-19. However, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General stated that an additional 10 billion doses will be needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s population.

The US plans to begin shipping vaccines in August 2021, with 200 million doses scheduled to be delivered by the end of this year. The remaining 300 million doses will be delivered during the first half of 2022. The US will allocate these doses with the assistance of COVAX, the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, which is a World Health Organisation international scheme designed to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are made available around the world, with richer countries subsidising costs for poorer nations.

Mr Moyo added: ‘Governments that share vaccines are advancing good public health globally and demonstrating a proper understanding of human interconnectivity. The relative wealth of a nation should have no influence on whether it can vaccinate citizens. Wealthier countries donating vaccines is a necessary decision in combating this disease. Individuals everywhere should have the option to be vaccinated. The pledge has been made. Now I look forward to seeing action.’

ENDS