- The government is on course to break its promise on international vaccination with their current donation rate suggesting that only half of the 100 million vaccine doses pledged will be delivered
- The APPG on Coronavirus is calling on the government to more than double the rate they are donating vaccines to reach the target set by the Prime Minister in June
- The UK has enough vaccine orders to revaccinate the population three times over while only 2% of people are fully vaccinated in lower income countries.
- Increasing vaccination donations will save lives abroad and protect the UK from more dangerous variants.
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus has called on the UK government to more than double the rate at which they donate vaccine doses to keep their promise of donating 100 million vaccine doses globally by June 2022.
At the G7 summit in June, the government committed to donating 100 million vaccine doses to poorer countries with at least 80million of these to be donated through the COVAX scheme. At the summit the Prime Minister called on other governments to match this target.
However, five months on the UK has donated only 20 million doses with 16 million of these earmarked for COVAX. COVAX has said that the failure of richer countries to meet commitments made is hampering their ability to plan and distribute vaccines around the world.
Even if the government delivers on plans to donate 30.6 million doses by the end of 2021, this rate of donation would still see the government miss their own target by almost half, donating only around 54.6 million out of 100 million doses. MPs and Peers from the APPG for Coronavirus have said to meet this target, the government needs to increase the rate at which they donate vaccines from 5.1 million to 11.5 million per month.
The UK currently has enough vaccine doses ordered to revaccinate the entire population three times over, meaning the UK has sufficient supply to meet commitments on global vaccine access and offer booster doses domestically, which was extended to over 40's on Monday. Conversely, in the world’s low-income countries, only around 2% of people are fully vaccinated and approximately 96% are yet to receive a first dose, meaning increasing donations now rather than later will save lives.
Vaccinating the world is also needed to prevent the emergence of new, more dangerous variants. In August, the SAGE group of scientists reported that as the virus continues to spread, a new variant could evolve that is completely resistant to the vaccine. The government has previously been unable to prevent new variants entering the UK
Ahead of an evidence session on global vaccine access, the APPG is calling on the government to step up monthly donations to fulfil their pledge, prevent new variants from emerging in unvaccinated populations, and play their part in ending this pandemic.
Dr Dan Poulter, conservative MP and vice-chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: “Donating vaccines overseas is not just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do, as not only will it save lives and maintain Britain’s global reputation as being a reliable partner, it will also protect our people, our economy and our NHS from future variants.
“The government must acknowledge our group's recommendation and increase vaccine donations as soon as possible. Any delay will only cost more lives.”
Dr David Nabarro, co-director of Global Health at Imperial College London’s Institute of Global Health Innovation and Special Envoy of the WHO director-general on CV19, said: "The CV19 Vaccines that have been listed for emergency use by WHO are effective at reducing severe illness and death among people who are at risk. However, the longer large numbers of people lack access to vaccines, the larger the number of people globally who will die. The chance that more dangerous variants will emerge - variants that are able to evade the protection offered by current vaccines - will increase.
“Richer countries have stockpiled more vaccine doses than they are able to use. From economic, public health and moral perspectives it is imperative that they share the vaccines with countries who are unable to enable more than a small proportion of those who need vaccines to access them.”