As we look around the globe at the impact of the pandemic, one

thing is clear: we are all in the same storm, even if we aren’t all in
the same boat.

While more affluent nations are now rolling out second vaccine doses, health
workers across the world, from the Pacific to Africa, and the Caribbean and
Latin America to Asia, are still awaiting their first doses, have inadequate
testing capacity, are juggling erratic oxygen supplies and are still forced to
customise out-of-date PPE.

Yet the painful truth is that despite these inequalities, we all face the same
threat from Covid-19, and its constantly evolving new variants.

While the high-income economies of the world have had the money to protect
workers and invest in their recovery, less affluent economies are struggling to
cope with the economic impact of the pandemic while the debts they have
accrued through the crisis threaten their financial futures.

No country’s economy exists in a vacuum and it is nonsensical to assume that

growth and prosperity will return to the world, including to G7 nations, while
over half the globe’s population still lives in fear of Covid-19 and economies
teeter from one lockdown to the next.

Meanwhile as we struggle to find solutions to the crisis and its short-term

impact, the devastating impact of climate change hangs over all our lives.
The perfect storm of these huge issues is why it is in the self-interest of the G7
and other affluent nations to use the next few weeks to reach an agreement
that takes a lead globally.

To help achieve this the WHO is urging countries to vaccinate at least 10% of
the population of every country by September, and a “drive to December” to
achieve the goal of vaccinating at least 30% by the end of 2021.
Similar proposals from the IMF estimate that by investing to ensure 60%
global vaccination coverage by 2022, the world economy would secure a 35-
fold return on investment. That is a staggering return in any market — jobs
preserved, lives saved, health costs averted all just by frontloading
vaccinations now that will have to be delivered anyway.

And the recent call by the UK to vaccinate the world against Covid-19 by 2022
is a welcome development. Indeed, vaccinating the world not only makes
sense, it is the soundest financial investment any government could make.
The rapid spread of new variants is a wake-up call for us all and we must help
ensure vaccines are available in countries currently under pressure.

But we must also ensure they are available for vulnerable people right across
Africa and the developing world. If we want to end this pandemic and protect
ourselves from endless new variants washing onto our shores from under-
vaccinated regions, there is only one way forward: we must make vaccines
available and invest in vaccinating the world.

This global investment has three key dimensions. Firstly, ensuring that
everyone everywhere has access to vaccines well before the end of 2022 so
that, second, the world can get on with the economic recovery that will
underpin all our prosperity; and third, if we are to tackle the long-term
challenges to our survival, we must ensure a green job-rich recovery for all so
we can confront the climate crisis together.

When G7 leaders meet this weekend, they do so with the knowledge that they
are the ones with the necessary economic and manufacturing clout to turn
things around for the world and bring about vaccine equity. Their support for
global initiatives, particularly the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator and its
COVAX global equitable vaccine sharing pillar, are key.

As the G7 meets, the rest of the world looks on in the certain knowledge that it
is within the power of these leaders not only to invest in their own country’s
protection, but also the protection and future flourishing and prosperity of the
whole world.