'First contribution to COVAX': Biden pledges $4 billion for global COVID vaccine program

On Friday, February 19, President Joe Biden will be announcing a $4 billion for global vaccine alliance known as COVAX. The aim of this alliance will be to help the poor countries. With this, he will also encourage G-7 partners to make good on their pledges to COVAX. This is an initiative by the WHO to improve access to vaccines. 

The funding has been approved by Congress in December and will be distributed through 2022. Earlier, Former US President Donald Trump declined to participate in this initiative due to its ties with WHO. He even pulled the United States out of WHO. However, immediately after inauguration, Biden rejoined and confirmed that the US would contribute to COVAX. On Thursday, February 18, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the US is committed to working through COVAX to ensure “equitable distribution of vaccines and funding globally”. 

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The COVAX initiative 

The COVAX initiative had already been backed by 190 countries and economies, said Tedros Adhanom. COVAX is one of the three pillars of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator that aims at innovative and equitable access to COVID-19 diagnostics, treatment and vaccine. WHO chief, who expressed concerns about vaccine nationalism, had previously asked the international communities to contribute a sum of $4 million in a bid to aid the purchase of vaccines for distribution in lower and middle-income countries through the COVAX vaccine facility. 

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The initiative aims to inoculate and distribute vaccines to underdeveloped and developing nations by early 2021. The WHO Director-General also stressed that if all countries act together, then humankind could beat the virus and prohibit it from mutating further. “Morally, economically, socially & for global security, we must act together right now,” he said. 

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(Image Credits: AP)