World Bank Invests US$2 Billion To Distribute COVID-19 Vaccine

Illustration of the world bank (dock. Between)

JAKARTA - World World agreed to spend $2 billion to distribute COVID-19 Vaccine to 40 developing countries. This was conveyed directly by the Managing Director of Operations of the World Bank Axel van Trotsenburg.

As reported by Reuters, the $2 billion funds are part of a collection of about $12 billion. dollars that the World Bank has provided overall for the development, distribution and production of vaccines in low- and middle-income countries, van Trotsenburg told a World Bank forum.

World Bank President David Malpass said in a separate speech to the lender's development committee that the bank expects this commitment to be expanded to $4 billion in 50 countries by mid-year.

But public health officials at the same forum warned that the race between the Coronavirus and a vaccine intended to stop it could disappear if the pace of vaccination in developing countries did not increase.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said existing vaccines could become ineffective if the virus continues to spread and mutate.

"Even countries with high vaccine coverage will not be safe because new variants that may not be stopped by the vaccines we have, will invade countries whose coverage, perhaps even 100 percent in a few months", he said.

Tedros called for more political will to increase production of the COVID-19 vaccine and share supply, including through the abandonment of intellectual property stuck on vaccines through the World Trade Organization.

The WTO's Trade-Related Intellectual Property Aspects Waiver or TRIPS is an "indoor elephant" that restrains vaccine production, Tedros said, adding that it is intended for emergencies such as the Coronavirus pandemic.

'We've never seen an emergency like this in our lives. If we can't use it now, then when are we going to use it?", Tedros asked. The cause of all this gridlock is a lack of political will.