Joe Biden Co -Hosting 2nd COVID Summit As World Resolves Weak –

WASHINGTON (AP)-President Joe Biden has called for a renewed international commitment to attack COVID-19 as he convenes the second global summit on COVID-19 at a time when delays in internal decision-making threaten the global response.

Eight months after using the first such summit to fulfill the ambitious promise to donate 1.2 billion vaccines worldwide, the need for a response from the United States and other countries has decreased.

The momentum for vaccination and treatment has weakened even as new, more infectious variants are growing and billions of people around the world remain vulnerable. Congress rejected Biden’s request for an additional $ 22.5 billion, which it called critical funding needed.

The White House said Biden would address the opening of the virtual summit Thursday morning with pre-recorded statements, confirming that resolving COVID-19 “should remain an international priority.” The United States is hosting the summit along with Germany, Indonesia, Senegal and Belize.

According to the State Department, the United States has shipped nearly 540 million doses of the vaccine to more than 110 countries and territories, more than any other donor country.

After delivering more than 1 billion vaccines to developing countries, the problem is no longer the lack of shots left, but the lack of logistical support to get gun doses. According to the government, more than 680 million administered doses of the vaccine remained unused in developing countries because it expired early and could not be delivered quickly. In March, 32 poorer countries used less than half of the COVID-19 vaccines shipped.

U.S. assistance to promote and promote vaccination abroad was reduced earlier this year, and Biden asked for approximately $ 5 billion for those efforts throughout the year.

“We have tens of millions of undeclared doses because countries don’t have the resources to build their own cold chains, which are mostly refrigeration systems; Arguing Disinformation; And get vaccines, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said this week. He added that the summit will be “an opportunity to reinforce the fact that we need additional funding to continue this part of the effort around the world.”

“We will continue to fight for more funding here,” Psaki said. “But we will continue to force other countries to do more to help the world prosper.”

Congress has rejected the COVID-19 simplification price and has so far refused to accept the package due to political opposition to the expected end of transfer restrictions during the pandemic on the U.S.-Mexico border. Even after a brief agreement on virus funding in March, lawmakers decided to free up aid funding around the world and focus only on providing assistance to tonics and vaccine therapies in the U.S.

Biden warned that if there is no action in congress, the United States could lose access to next -generation vaccines and treatments and that the country will not have an adequate booster dose or the antiviral drug Paxlovid by the end of the year. It also warned that more options would emerge if the US and the world would do more to support the virus around the world.

“To beat a pandemic here, we have to beat it anywhere,” Biden said at the first global summit in September.

Demand for the vaccine for COVID-19 has dropped in some countries as infections and mortality rates around the world have dropped in recent months, especially since the omicron variant is less severe than previous versions of the disease. For the first time since its inception, the UN-backed COVAX effort has “sufficient reserves to allow countries to meet their national vaccination targets,” Drs. Seth Berkeley, CEO of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, who heads COVAX.

But even though more than 65% of the world’s population receives at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, less than 16% of people in poor countries have been vaccinated. Countries are unlikely to reach the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 70% of people by June.

In countries such as Cameroon, Uganda and Ivory Coast, officials have tried to get enough refrigerators to carry vaccines, send enough syringes for mass campaigns, and get enough health workers to inject. . Experts also note that in poor countries, more than half of the health workers needed to get vaccines are paid or unpaid.

Critics say giving more vaccines is pointless.

“It’s like providing fire engines to countries with fire but no water,” said Ritu Sharma, vice president of CARE Charity, which has helped vaccinate people in more than 30 countries, including India and the south. . Sudan and Bangladesh.

“We can’t give countries all of these vaccines, but in any case we shouldn’t use them,” he said, adding that the same infrastructure used to vaccinate in the United States is now needed elsewhere. . “We need to address this problem in the United States. Why not use this knowledge today to get vaccines from people who need it most?

Sharma said more investment is needed in developing countries against vaccine reluctance, where there is a strong belief in the potential risks of drugs made in the West.

“Leaders must agree to pursue a coherent strategy to end the pandemic, rather than a fragmented strategy that prolongs the crisis,” said Gail Smith, CEO of The ONE Campaign.

GAVI Berkley also said countries are increasingly demanding more expensive messenger RNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna that are less available as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which in the past made up a large portion of COVAX’s stock.

The advent of variants such as Delta and Omicron has forced many countries to switch to mRNA vaccines, which appear to provide more protection and are more in demand worldwide than traditional vaccines such as AstraZeneca, Novavax, or vaccines made in China and Russia.

Cheng reported from London.