(VOVWORLD) - A vaccine summit being hosted by US President Joe Biden must come up with a plan this week to transfer 100 million stockpiled COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries before they reach their expiry date, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
 Boxes of AstraZeneca vaccines, redeployed from the Democratic Republic of Congo, arrive at a cold storage facility in Accra, Ghana on May 7, 2021. (Photo: Reuters) |
Biden is due to convene a virtual COVID-19 summit on Wednesday on the margins of the UN General Assembly, aimed at boosting vaccinations worldwide with the goal of ending the pandemic by the end of 2022.
Brown said he had sent Biden and fellow G7 leaders research by Airfinity, a scientific information and analytics company, which found 100 million COVID-19 vaccines stockpiled in rich countries in the northern hemisphere would expire by December without being used.
Out of 5.7 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines administered around the world, only 2% have been in Africa.
It is unthinkable and unconscionable that 100 million vaccines will have to be thrown away from the stockpiles of the rich countries whilst the populations of the world's poorest countries will pay for the vaccine waste in lives lost, Brown said.