Author: Lauren Pizzey, Senior Advocacy and Research Officer

With all covid restrictions lifted in the UK, we are returning to a level of normality for the first time in over two years. However, we enjoy this freedom with bated breath as at any moment the emergence of a new and more dangerous variant of the virus could swiftly plunge us back into the chaos of early 2020; rising death tolls, economic decline and an NHS in crisis. There is ongoing debate over how best to mitigate this risk while maintaining levels of individual freedoms critical to public wellbeing, though we will continue to struggle with this balancing act until we get serious about tackling new variants at their source. To do this we need a coordinated global effort to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live, has access to the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of January this year, only 9% of people in low-income countries had received a vaccine dose, compared to 77% in high-income countries. As UN Secretary-General António Guterres pointed out at the 2022 Gavi COVAX AMC Summit: Break COVID Now, in April, “We are far from our target of every country reaching 70% vaccination coverage by the middle of this year.”In contexts where healthcare systems are already overstretched, access to adequate hygiene is limited and living conditions are often cramped, the conditions for new variants are ripe. Not only does this devastate communities already in the grip of extreme poverty, but also halts and often reverses any progress made by the international community in emerging from the pandemic, as it is only a matter of time before these localised variants wreak havoc across the globe.

The COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, or COVAX Facility, coordinates international resources to enable low-to-middle-income countries access to COVID-19 tests, therapies, and vaccines. Directed by the GAVI vaccine alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization (WHO), alongside key delivery partner UNICEF, the initiative coordinates self-financing countries - such as the UK - to pool funding to share the costs of providing vaccines to low income countries. To date, the COVAX facility has secured 2.8 billion doses of the vaccine, with 1.4 billion doses delivered to 145 countries.

The U.K. has contributed £548 million to COVAX and promised to donate 100 million doses through the mechanism, and At the virtual advanced market commitment (AMC) Summit this year, donors mobilized a total of US$4.8 billion to replenish COVAX.

However, although the UK is among the top donors to the facility, according to Our World in Data, as of May 2022 it has only contributed 59% of its promised contribution. All G20 countries must continue to step up and honour their commitments to COVAX if we are to effectively ward off future variants of the virus, and continue to enjoy the freedom that we have collectively worked so hard to regain.