The European Union (EU) announced Monday (August 31) that it will join the COVAX coronavirus vaccine alliance, an initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The European Commission says it has made an allocation of € 400 million or IDR 6.9 trillion to support the program.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the goal was to work collectively “in purchasing future vaccines for the benefit of low and middle income countries.”
The COVAX program initiative aims to obtain two billion injection doses of COVID-19 from several vaccine manufacturers by the end of 2021. In addition, the goal is to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to all countries around the world.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the financial support.
“Many thanks @EU_Commission for their contribution to the COVAX facility and for its steadfast commitment to multilateralism,” Tedros tweeted.
Activists have previously warned that if there is no significant effort to hold political, pharmaceutical and health leaders to account, any vaccine developed could end up being stockpiled by wealthy nations.
