Disappointment brews amid fears major health summit will fail to plug gaps in global Covid response

There are growing concerns that a major G20 summit on Friday will yield few concrete commitments from wealthy countries, a blow for those pushing for funds to stem gaps limiting the scope of global initiatives for vaccines, drugs and tests.

Many hoped the global health summit – a one off event hosted by the European Commission and G20 President Italy – would be a big moment to boost both immediate and long term funds for the Act-Accelerator, a scheme to develop and equitably distribute diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

According to the World Health Organization the initiative, which aimed to raise $34 billion and includes the Covax vaccine distribution programme, is facing a funding shortfall of roughly $18.5 billion for 2021 alone.

But a leaked draft of the declaration outlining conclusions of the summit, seen by The Telegraph and still subject to change, is vague.

It commits to “invest predictably and sufficiently in international cooperation in research, development and innovation” and to take into account “issues of scalability and access from an early stage”.

Yet, in its current iteration, leaders stop short of pledging to fully fund the Act Accelerator and experts fear the summit will be a missed opportunity.

Alan Donnelly, a former Labour MEP and co-convenor of the G20 Health and Development Partnership, said three things need to come out of the meeting: an “absolute commitment” to fill the immediate funding gap for the Act-Accelerator; an agreement to expand the initiative into a broader, long lasting platform; and a concrete plan to ensure equitable access of medicines.

If the meeting fails to reach a concrete consensus, “then you know you have to question” what the purpose of the summit was, he said.

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, added that it would be a failure of global leadership if both Global Health Summit and the G7 – which will be held in Cornwall in June – pass without addressing huge funding shortfalls for the Act-Accelerator.

“We are still in the acute phase and we need to mobilise further resources to handle the crisis we are in,” he told The Telegraph.

“We need $18 billion, which is a fair amount of money, but it’s really a tiny amount if you look first at the effect on the global economy because of the pandemic, and second if you take the trillions of dollars that has been spent by governments across the world to support their economy.”

He added that he hopes to see bold commitments to share available vaccines doses emerge from the global health summit.

There is growing pressure on wealthy countries to do more to address what Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, called a “vaccine apartheid”.

More than 1.5 billion vaccines have been administered worldwide, but 84 per cent have been used in high and upper middle income countries and less than one per cent in low income nations, according to Our World in Data.

Debates about how best to combat disparities have become increasingly divided, with many governments, charities and activists supporting measures to waiver intellectual property rights.

The United States surprised many by throwing its support behind this idea, arguing that all options need to be on the table at a time of crisis. But many critics say it will do little to address acute supply shortages in the immediate future.

The global health summit draft declaration instead expresses support for “voluntary and mutually agreed knowledge and technology transfer and licensing partnerships”, and promises to work “to increase global, region and local manufacturing”.

Reports this week have suggested Europe will use the health summit to back back proposals to establish strategic manufacturing hubs in African countries.

But – while the draft promises to “ensure equitable, affordable and global access” to medical tools and to “support robust vaccine delivery systems” – it is unclear whether the Global Health Summit will result in commitments from wealthy nations to share shots. The European Commission declined to comment.

Many countries have already made commitments. France, for instance, has promised to share 500,000 doses through the Covax scheme, while America announced this week that it would donate 20 million Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines by the end of June – on top of 60 million AstraZeneca jabs it will share after they gain US regulatory approval.

Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday Gayle Smith, a senior Biden administration official, said a “substantial portion” of these vaccines will be shared with Covax, and expressed optimism that other countries will follow suit.

“Our experience and I think the product of our discussions with a number of countries and bodies like the EU is that there's a recognition of the importance of dose sharing and a desire to increase dose sharing,” Ms Smith, the State Department Coordinator for the Global Covid response, said.

“For many countries the timing and volume of that is dependent on their own domestic vaccine coverage... What I can tell you is that I think there is a broad consensus that dose sharing needs to be part of our collective strategy.”

The UK has suggested it will share doses following the domestic rollout, and no timeline has been outlined. On Wednesday Matt Hancock claimed Britain’s investment in Covax and the AstraZeneca shot means Britain “has probably done more than any other nation to help vaccinate the world’s poorest”.

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