In a British daily interview Financial TimesOn Thursday February 18, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed that rich countries transfer between 3% and 5% of their stocks of Covid-19 vaccines to Africa. The French head of state submitted this idea to the meeting of G7 leaders on Friday, including the United States. Concretely, this involves organizing the immediate dispatch of 13 million doses of vaccines so that the continent can vaccinate its 6.5 million caregivers. “If we, Europeans, Americans, know how to deliver these 13 million doses as quickly as possible, that is worth our credibility” and “then the West will be considered in Africa”, but “if we announce billions today to give doses in 6 months, in a year, our African friends will buy doses from the Chinese, the Russians “and” the strength of the West will not be a reality “, he pleaded during the conference on security Munich, which included US President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Towards massive support for Covax
G7 leaders agreed earlier on Friday to more than double their support for anti-Covid vaccination worldwide, to $ 7.5 billion, notably through the Covax program, led by the World Health Organization (WHO). Covax aims to provide vaccines to 20% of the population in nearly 200 countries and territories this year. But the question of the timing of delivery to poor countries remains, as Western countries anxiously await delivery. “The African continent has 6.5 million caregivers, 13 million doses of vaccines are needed to protect them, to allow the healthcare system to resist. “It represents 0.43% of the doses we ordered,” he said.
The great powers have launched mass vaccination campaigns since January, but disadvantaged countries are staying away from the movement. In Africa, only a few countries have started. But rich countries have ordered huge quantities of doses without knowing if these vaccines would be effective and, given the number of projects that have been successful, they will end up with hundreds of millions of excess doses. The French president sees aid for vaccination in Africa as a global health issue but also a struggle for influence with China and Russia on the continent. Several African countries have recently received the first batches of vaccine donated by China.
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