Only about 260 million of the 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine donations promised to poorer nations by drug companies and wealthier countries have been delivered to date.

Geneva, October 23 (RHC)-- A new report by the People’s Vaccine Alliance found that only about 260 million of the 1.8 billion COVID-19 vaccine donations promised to poorer nations by drug companies and wealthier countries have been delivered to date.  That’s just 14% of what was pledged. 

Gordon Brown, the World Health Organization’s ambassador for global health financing, said rich countries are on pace to have almost a billion spare vaccines stockpiled by February.  Brown said: “To have the vaccines available in one half of the world, and yet to deny them to the other half of the world, is one of the greatest international public policy failures imaginable, and it’s a moral catastrophe of historic proportions that will shock future generations.”

The WHO estimates between 80,000 and 180,000 healthcare workers have died of COVID-19 from the start of the pandemic through May of this year.  Just two out of five healthcare workers worldwide are fully vaccinated.