Europe and U.S. should donate up to 5 percent of vaccine doses to developing nations, Macron says

In an interview with the Financial Times, Macron said that global vaccine inequality is “politically unsustainable” and “paving the way for a war of influence over vaccines.” He referred to a situation in which Western nations have secured hundreds of millions of doses, while some countries have yet to administer a single shot.

“We are allowing the idea to take hold that hundreds of millions of vaccines are being given in rich countries and that we are not starting in poor countries,” he told the newspaper ahead of a virtual Group of Seven meeting Friday of leaders of the world’s largest economies.

“It’s an unprecedented acceleration of global inequality, and it’s politically unsustainable, too, because it’s paving the way for a war of influence over vaccines,” Macron said in the interview. He added that “you can see the Chinese strategy and the Russian strategy, too.”

Macron suggested allocating between 4 and 5 percent of current vaccine supplies in Europe and the United States and transferring them quickly to developing nations “so that people on the ground see it happening.”

“It’s not about vaccine diplomacy, it’s not a power game — it’s a matter of public health,” he said.

Groups that track vaccine distribution and supply say that wealthy nations have not only raced ahead in the number of doses they have administered but also have placed large advance purchase orders with a variety of manufacturers before poorer nations.

High-income countries have so far secured over 4.6 billion doses among them — far more than all middle-income and lower-income countries combined, which had secured 2.5 million, according to tracking from Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center.

The Covax Facility, a program backed by the World Health Organization that is meant to ensure global access to vaccines, has secured around 1.1 billion doses so far.

While these large advance purchases may have helped spur increased supplies of doses in the early stages of the vaccine rollout, some wealthy countries have been criticized for stockpiling more supplies than they need for their populations.

Including only currently confirmed purchases, Canada has bought enough doses to cover its population five times over, while Britain has enough doses for well over three times its population. The United States has purchased enough for around twice its population.

If all high-income nations were to donate 5 percent of their doses, it could result in as many as 230 million extra doses — more than a third of supplies currently secured by low-income nations, according to the tracking by Duke.

Donated doses may also allow vaccinations to start more quickly in poorer nations that have not yet administered a single dose. Experts say this would not only protect vulnerable people in those nations but curtail the spread of the virus and limit the potential for variants.

But the idea may be unpopular domestically, especially in countries such as France and Canada where the rollout of vaccines to at-risk groups has been far slower than in nations such as Britain and the United States.

Macron’s suggestion that countries donate up to 5 percent appears to be among the most specific plans to combat vaccine inequality described by a Western leader. In December, German Development Minister Gerd Müller said the European Union should make it mandatory to share vaccines with poorer countries.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Macron said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported the idea and that he hoped it would find backing from the United States and European allies.

In a statement to The Washington Post last month, a State Department spokesperson said the United States would “develop a framework for providing surplus U.S. government vaccine doses to countries in need, once there is sufficient supply in the United States.”

The statement did not define when sufficient supply would be met or describe a broader timetable but said that Covax may be used to distribute these doses. The Biden administration has pledged to support the WHO-backed effort after the Trump administration declined to.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an initial $10.7 million investment to help the Task Force for Global Health assist up to 50 low- and middle-income countries with coronavirus immunization programs

Macron’s remarks follow growing calls for wealthy nations to do more to ensure that poorer nations can start vaccinations. At a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Secretary General António Guterres called the global distribution of coronavirus vaccines “wildly uneven and unfair.”

The WHO has also issued a call for political leaders around the world to sign a Vaccine Equity Declaration. Among other points, the declaration says that countries should share doses with the Covax Facility in tandem with their own national rollouts.