G20 LEADERS COMMIT TO FAIR DISTRIBUTION OF CORONAVIRUS VACCINES WORLDWIDE

Mon 23 November 2020:

G20 leaders meeting remotely pledged on Sunday to “spare no effort” to ensure the fair distribution of coronavirus vaccines worldwide, but offered no specific new funding to meet that goal.

After a virtual summit hosted by Saudi Arabia, the G20 leaders said in the final communique: “We have mobilised resources to address the immediate financing needs in global health to support the research, development, manufacturing and distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.”

They said they supported a global project for vaccines, tests and therapeutics, called the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) initiative and its COVAX facility.

The COVID-19 virus has infected over 57.7 million people and claimed the lives of more than 1.38 million. And tens of thousands more deaths are feared in the coming months, with the onset of cold weather and the holidays.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and its unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, is an unparalleled shock that has revealed vulnerabilities in our preparedness and response and underscored our common challenges,” the declaration stated.

G20 countries will work to “protect lives, provide support with a special focus on the most vulnerable, and put our economies back on a path to restoring growth, and protecting and creating jobs for all.”

Regarding coronavirus vaccines, tests and treatments, the leaders said: “We will spare no effort to ensure their affordable and equitable access for all people.”

The summit also discussed how to help stave off possible credit defaults among developing nations as their debt soars in the economic upheaval the virus has unleashed. The G20 had already extended a debt service suspension initiative (DSSI) for developing countries until June next year, but Guterres had pushed for a commitment to extend it until the end of 2021.

The president of the World Bank, David Malpass, had told the G20 creditors at the meeting: “We have to avoid doing too little now and then suffering disorderly defaults and repeated debt restructurings like in the 1980s.”

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said: “The recent breakthroughs on Covid-19 vaccines offer a ray of hope. But that ray of hope needs to reach everyone. That means ensuring that vaccines are treated as a global public good, a people’s vaccine accessible and affordable to everyone, everywhere,” he said.

“This is not a ‘do-good’ exercise. It is the only way to stop the pandemic dead in its tracks. Solidarity is indeed survival.”

The final G20 communique simply said: “We have mobilised resources to address the immediate financing needs in global health to support the research, development, manufacturing and distribution of safe and effective Covid-19 diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

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