Clearing the Path to Vaccinating the World
Manufacturers say rich countries will soon have more Covid-19 vaccines than they need. There’s no longer any excuse for failing to help the rest.
Supplies are finally ramping up.
Photographer: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines say they’re now producing 1.5 billion doses a month and will have made 12 billion doses by the end of the year. In theory, that would be enough to meet the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70% of the global population. The challenge is to ensure these vaccines go where they’re needed. Most of the doses coming off production lines appear headed for wealthy countries that will soon have more than enough.
By the end of the year, the U.S., U.K., European Union, Canada and Japan could find themselves with more than 600 million excess doses, beyond what they’ve already promised to donate, even after offering booster shots. At that point, 20% of them may be too old to be used elsewhere. The G-7 countries have so far delivered less than 15% of the nearly 1.7 billion doses they’ve promised to give to low- and middle-income countries.