The G7’s Kinda Sorta Billion Dose Vaccine Pledge for Developing Countries

Oxfam activists wearing giant heads of the G7 leaders dramatize the split between the powers over the waiving of intellectual property rules for vaccines on Swanpool beach in Falmouth, Cornwall on the sidelines of the G7 summit on June 11, 2021. Adrian DENNIS / AFP

G7 countries took a big step over the weekend to change the narrative on COVID-19 vaccines, after being rightly accused of hoarding the vast majority of the world’s supply of jabs at the expense of poorer developing countries.

The group announced a plan to distribute a billion vaccine doses to low and middle-income countries over the next year, half of which will come from the United States. In what the U.S. is calling a “historic vaccine donation,” Washington will purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer vaccines to be distributed through the global COVAX alliance.

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by Eric Olander

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