It is in everyone’s interests for richer countries to ensure supplies are distributed more equitably
Can naked self-interest achieve what a sense of justice has signally failed to do? Perhaps. Friday’s G7 meeting offers some hope that, at last, wealthy countries are waking up to the need to share vaccines more equitably with the rest of the world. More than 193m doses have been given globally, including more than 16m in the UK – yet 130 countries have yet to receive a single dose.
Boris Johnson, the meeting’s host, urged countries to help cut the time it takes to produce vaccines, and promised to donate surplus doses to poorer countries – but only once the UK’s own citizens are all vaccinated. (Polling suggests the public is more than three times as likely to support sharing surplus doses as it is to back keeping them “just in case”). Meanwhile, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has urged Europe and the US to send up to 5% of their vaccines to poorer countries now – though the US was quick to demur.
