Page 2 - aruba-today-20220513

A2 UP FRONT
Friday 13 May 2022
Continued from Front the vaccines alliance Gavi,
That lack of funding — which fronts COVAX.
Biden has requested an ad- Still, despite more than 65%
ditional $22.5 billion in what of the world's population
he calls critically needed receiving at least one CO-
money — is a U.S. reflec- VID-19 vaccine dose, less
tion of faltering resolve that than 16% of people in poor
jeopardizes the global re- countries have been im-
sponse to the pandemic, munized. It is highly unlikely
he says. countries will hit the World
Eight months after he used Health Organization target
the first COVID summit to of vaccinating 70% of all
announce an ambitious people by June.
pledge to donate 1.2 billion In countries including Cam-
vaccine doses to the world, eroon, Uganda and the
the urgency of the U.S. and Ivory Coast, officials have
other nations to respond struggled to get enough re-
has waned. frigerators to transport vac-
Momentum on vaccina- cines, send enough syring-
tions and treatments has es for mass campaigns and
faded even as more infec- get enough health workers
tious variants rise and bil- to inject the shots. Experts
lions of people across the also point out that more
globe remain unprotected. than half of the health
Biden addressed the open- workers needed to admin-
ing of the virtual summit ister the vaccines in poorer
Thursday morning with re- countries are either under-
corded remarks and made paid or not paid at all.
the case that tackling CO- White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha speaks during the daily briefing at Donating more vaccines,
VID-19 "must remain an the White House in Washington, April 26, 2022. critics say, would miss the
international priority." The Associated Press point entirely.
U.S. is co-hosting the sum- "It's like donating a bunch
mit along with Germany, than 1 billion vaccines to Psaki said this week. tiviral drug Paxlovid for later of fire trucks to countries
Indonesia, Senegal and the developing world, the "We're going to continue this year. He's also sound- that are on fire, but they
Belize."This summit is an op- problem is no longer a lack to fight for more funding ing the alarm that more have no water," said Ritu
portunity to renew our ef- of shots but of logistical sup- here," Psaki said. "But we variants will spring up if the Sharma, a vice president
forts to keep our foot on port to get doses into arms. will continue to press other U.S. and the world don't do at the charity CARE, which
the gas when it comes to According to government countries to do more to more to contain the virus has helped immunize peo-
getting this pandemic un- data, more than 680 million help the world make prog- globally. ple in more than 30 coun-
der control and preventing donated vaccine doses ress as well." In an interview Thursday tries, including India, South
future health crises," Biden have been left unused in Congress has balked at the with The Associated Press, Sudan and Bangladesh.
said. The U.S. has shipped developing countries be- price tag for COVID-19 re- White House COVID-19 "We can't be giving coun-
nearly 540 million vaccine cause they were expiring lief and has thus far refused coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha tries all these vaccines but
doses to more than 110 and couldn't be adminis- to take up the package pressed the need for the no way to use them," she
countries and territories, tered quickly enough. As because of political oppo- U.S. to fund global vac- said, adding that the same
according to the State De- of March, 32 poorer coun- sition to the impending end cination efforts as a way infrastructure that got the
partment — far more than tries had used less than half of pandemic-era migration to protect Americans at shots administered in the
any other donor nation. of the COVID-19 vaccines restrictions at the U.S.-Mex- home, warning that strains U.S. is now needed else-
The leaders announced they were sent. ico border. Even after a like delta and omicron first where. Sharma said great-
about $3 billion in new U.S. assistance to promote consensus for virus funding sprang up overseas. er investment also is need-
commitments to fight the and facilitate vaccinations briefly emerged in March, "All of these variants were ed to counter vaccine
virus, along with a host of overseas dried up earlier lawmakers decided to strip first identified outside of hesitancy in developing
new programs meant to this year, and Biden has re- out the global aid funding the United States," he said. countries where there are
boost access to vaccines quested about $5 billion for and solely focus the assis- "If the goal is to protect entrenched beliefs about
and treatments around the effort through the rest tance on shoring up U.S. the American people, we the potential dangers of
the world. But that was a of the year. supplies of vaccine booster have got to make sure the Western-made medicines.
far more modest outcome "We have tens of millions of shots and therapeutics. world is vaccinated. There's Gavi's Berkley also said
than at last year's meeting. unclaimed doses because Biden has warned that just no domestic-only ap- that countries are increas-
"At the global level, all countries lack the resourc- without Congress acting, proach here." ingly asking for the pricier
countries, big or small, rich es to build out their cold the U.S. could lose out on Demand for COVID-19 vac- messenger RNA vaccines
or poor, must have equal chains, which basically is access to the next genera- cines has dropped in some made by Pfizer and Moder-
access to health solutions," the refrigeration systems, tion of vaccines and treat- countries as infections and na, which are not as easily
Indonesian President Joko to fight disinformation and ments, and that the nation deaths have declined available as the AstraZen-
Widodo said in his remarks. to hire vaccinators," White won't have enough supply globally in recent months, eca vaccine, which made
After the delivery of more House press secretary Jen of booster doses or the an- particularly as the omicron up the bulk of COVAX's
variant has proved to be supply last year.
LIKE US ON less severe than earlier ver- Variants like delta and omi-
sions of the disease. For cron have led many coun-
the first time since it was tries to switch to mRNA
created, the U.N.-backed vaccines, which seem to
COVAX effort has "enough provide more protection
supply to enable countries and are in greater demand
to meet their national vac- globally than traditionally
Facebook.com/arubatoday/ cination targets," accord- made vaccines like those
ing Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of from China and Russia.q