Charities urge Boris Johnson to begin donating vaccines to poorer nations or risk ‘hoarding’ supplies while frontline workers are exposed to Covid-19.
Charities have urged Boris Johnson to start donating vaccines to poorer nations or risk ‘hoarding’ supplies while frontline workers are exposed to Covid.
In a letter to the prime minister, health and development charities say the UK is on track to have more than 100million surplus doses, adding that the country is ‘one of the world’s highest per-capita buyers’ of vaccines.
Wellcome, led by SAGE scientist Sir Jeremy Farrar and Save the Children UK are among the groups urging Mr Johnson to take accelerated action’ and ‘swiftly clarify’ how doses will be shared.
Its letter warns there is a ‘high risk that the UK will be hoarding limited supply whilst health workers and the most vulnerable in low and middle-income countries do not have access.’
It adds: ‘The UK will be sitting on enough surplus vaccine doses to vaccinate the world’s frontline health workers twice over.’
They are urging Britain to immediately begin donating doses through the Covax initiative, which is working to provide vaccines for low and middle-income countries.
The Government responded that it will share ‘the majority of any future surplus’ vaccines with the Covax pool ‘when these are available’.
