Daily US Times: French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the US and Europe to urgently send up to 5% of their Covid-19 vaccine supplies to poorer nations.
Mr Macron told the Financial Times the failure to share coronavirus vaccines fairly would entrench global inequality.
The vast majority of vaccinations have been administered by wealthy countries so far but poorer nations are still far away from vaccines.
The French president proposed his plan to address the imbalance ahead of a G7 virtual summit of world leaders on Friday.
The White House has said President Joe Biden will announce a pledge of $4bn in funding for a global vaccine-sharing scheme, known as Covax.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of UK – who will chair the meeting – is expected to dedicate surplus doses to Covax.
To date, at least 110 million people have been infected with the coronavirus around the world and more than 2.4 million have died, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Mr Macron said: “We’re not talking about billions of doses immediately, or billions and billions of euros,”
“It’s about much more rapidly allocating 4-5% of the doses we have,” he told the FT.
“It won’t change our vaccination campaigns, but each country should set aside a small number of the doses it has to transfer tens of millions of them, but very fast, so that people on the ground see it happening.”
The French president said German Chancellor Angela Merkel supported a European vaccine-sharing initiative, adding that he hoped to win the backing of the US as well.
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