US and global vaccine alliance kick off Covid fundraising effort

The United States government and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, kicked off a pledging event Thursday aimed at raising an additional $2 billion to support vaccine distribution to lower income countries around the world.

The Biden administration’s involvement in the effort is the latest example of its work to reestablish the US standing on the world stage after four years of President Donald Trump’s dislike and disavowal of international organizations.

As the coronavirus pandemic swept the globe, Trump cast particular ire toward the World Health Organization, cutting funding, moving to terminate US ties to the institution, and refusing to participate in its international effort known as COVAX.

President Joe Biden restored US ties to the World Health Organization at the outset of his tenure, and in the months since, his administration has been actively stressing the need for a global response to the deadly plague.

At Thursday’s event, which kicks off the drive to support the Gavi COVAX​ Advance Market Commitment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed that “this isn’t just an opportunity — it’s an imperative.”

According to Jeremy Konyndyk, the senior adviser for Covid efforts at the US Agency for International Development, they are hoping to “raise about an additional $2 billion towards the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment and that’s basically a pool of donor financing that is supporting vaccines for 92 low and lower-middle income countries that without that can’t afford to procure their own sufficient vaccines.”

The effort will turn to the private sector, private foundations and charities, and partner governments, Konyndyk said. USAID and Gayle Smith, the administration’s new coordinator for global Covid response and health security, will play a role in a “pretty intensive period” of outreach before they reconvene in June to hopefully announce they’ve met their goal, he said.

In his remarks, Blinken repeated a common refrain — that they “recognize that as long as Covid is spreading and replicating anywhere, it poses a threat to people everywhere” — and noted the US’ $2 billion pledge to Gavi, with an additional $2 billion to be contributed through 2022.

“We need to produce more safe, effective vaccines, and we need to distribute them more rapidly. So we call on partners to work alongside Gavi to support urgent vaccine manufacturing, supply, and delivery needs,” he said.

The United States, however, has shared only limited supplies of the AstraZeneca vaccine with Mexico and Canada. Blinken said in an interview with NBC Sunday that “as we get more comfortable with where we are on vaccinating every American, we are then looking at what we can do — what more we can do around the world.”