COVID: PM to Push for World Vaccination by End of 2022

Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister is to summon world leaders of influential countries to vaccinate the world before the end of 2022 against Covid.

Boris is set to lay out a universal target on Friday at a conference of the G7 group of advanced countries.

The US, Germany, Italy, France, and  Japan have all disclosed the number of doses they are going to donate for the worldwide vaccine-distribution, Coax.

Only the UK and Canada have not released the figures on their proposed donations for the vaccine against Covid.

Johnson, ahead of the summit taking place in Cornwall from Friday, unveiled that he intends to request his peers to rise to the greatest challenge of the post-war era by vaccinating the world by the end of next year.

Such attainment would be the single greatest feat in medical history, he said.

He also promised that the UK will stir up more discourse to increase the rate of production of Coax.

This will be US President, Joe Biden’s very first visit to the UK since his swearing-in as the US President and the conference will also be the G7 leader’s first physical gathering since the outbreak of the deadly pandemic.

The US has guaranteed to contribute 80 million vaccine against Covid doses to impoverished countries, while other G7 countries have given much fewer numbers.

There has been frustration from campaigners that the UK is yet to disclose the number of doses it will pledge, but it is expected of him to do so at the conference.

Many dignitaries wrote to Mr. Johnson last week encouraging him to also do what his counterparts, G7 countries like Germany, France, and Italy who have committed to contributing at least 100 million doses before the end of the year.

So far, the UK has only pledged to donate excess doses to the international Covax scheme, which distributes jabs to low and middle-income countries. On Friday, Mr. Hancock said the UK did not have any spare doses at the moment.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said the reality was that governments are obliged to look after [their] own people and so will always prioritize vaccinating their own country first.

But he said, you can’t be absolutist about this, there may be some vaccine that we can ship out in advance.

The former Labour leader supported Mr. Johnson’s call for world vaccination against Covid and called top-notch healthcare officials, the elderly and those in urban areas to be jabbed by the end of this year.