JAI

President Joe Biden, in the UK for a G7 summit, said the US donation would be “the largest single…donation of Covid-19 vaccines by any single country ever”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the UK would give more than 100 million surplus doses in the next year.

“In doing so we will take a massive step towards beating this pandemic for good,” he said.

The US has agreed to purchase 500 million doses from Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a “not for profit” price.

Mr Biden vowed the US would be “the arsenal of vaccines in our fight against Covid”.

He said the vaccines “would start to be shipped in August” to “nearly 100 low- and lower-middle income countries,” and made clear there would be “no strings attached.”

It is understood that 200 million US doses will be distributed by the end of this year, and then a further 300 million by June 2022.

They will be provided to countries through the international Covax vaccine-sharing scheme, and a programme run by the African Union, that aims to vaccinate the most vulnerable 20% of every nation around the world.

The World Health Organization (WHO) director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, says the US donation “is a monumental step forward”.

Most of the UK doses being donated will also go via Covax, with about a fifth delivered through specific agreements with countries in need.

The US had already pledged to give 80 million doses to countries around the world.

Some other G7 countries have started to donate further doses and more pledges are expected at the G7 summit this weekend.

The scale of the task is huge, and vaccines are needed immediately.

At a summit in early June, hosted by the Global Alliance for Vaccination and Immunisation (Gavi), it was announced that so far, more than 132 million doses had been shared by various countries.

This included more than 54 million doses available for short-term supply donated by Belgium, Denmark and Japan, as well as additional supplies from Spain and Sweden.

“The challenge is given the variants, given the movement of the virus, to get these vaccines available across the world as soon as possible,” Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi told the BBC.

He said Covax had already ordered more than 2.5 billion doses, but these wouldn’t come until the latter part of the year.

He said 100 million of those doses were needed in June and July.

The original Covax objective was to deliver two billion doses of vaccine worldwide by the end of this year, but the aim now is to get 1.8 billion doses to 92 lower income economies by early 2022.

One vaccine expert, Prof Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine in the US, outlined the challenge in a tweet , saying “we desperately need a US foreign policy and American leadership to take on this challenge”.

And all these commitments are way off the 11 billion doses the WHO estimates are needed to vaccinate the whole world to a level of 70%, the point at which transmission of the virus could be significantly affected.

There have also been calls to boost vaccine production, and the G7 leaders are expected to set out a plan to expand manufacturing to help meet global demand.

One of the main challenges has been the delivery of vaccines.

As of 8 June, the Covax scheme had shipped just 81 million doses to 129 member countries.

That contrasts with more than 300 million doses delivered to the US population alone, which means other parts of the world that are relying on Covax are far behind.

The Covax scheme has mostly relied on the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India.

However supplies were severely hit in March, April and May after India halted all major exports of the vaccine when it was hit by a massive second wave.

A total of 1.1bn doses of Covishield (AstraZeneca) were ordered from India’s largest manufacturer – the Serum Institute of India (SII).

So far, it has supplied just 30 million doses to Covax, with nearly 190 million doses held up as it struggled to ramp up its production.

It says exports will only resume by the end of the year and that the company is focusing on meeting India’s own needs.

There has also been an issue in some countries about the slow uptake and distribution of vaccines already delivered, with some African nations unable to use doses before they expire.

“While more vaccines are vital, some African countries must ramp up actions to swiftly roll out the vaccines they have,” the WHO said.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine donation from the US may go some way to addressing longer-term demand, but in the short-term, supply and logistical issues are likely to continue to be an obstacle.