By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, June 14 (Reuters) - Outgoing U.N. aid chief
Mark Lowcock slammed the Group of Seven wealthy nations on
Monday for failing to come up with a plan to vaccinate the world
against COVID-19, describing the G7 pledge to provide 1 billion
doses over the next year as a "small step."
"These sporadic, small-scale, charitable handouts from rich
countries to poor countries is not a serious plan and it will
not bring the pandemic to an end," Lowcock, who steps down on
Friday, told Reuters. "The G7, essentially, completely failed to
show the necessary urgency."
The leaders of the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain,
France, Italy and Canada met in Cornwall, England over the
weekend and also agreed to work with the private sector, the
Group of 20 industrialized nations and other countries to
increase the vaccine contribution over months to come.
"They took a small step - at that very, very nice resort in
Cornwall - but they shouldn't kid themselves it's more than a
small step and they have still have a lot to do," Lowcock said.
"What the world needed from the G7 was a plan to vaccinate
the world. And what we got was a plan to vaccinate about 10% of
the population of low and middle income countries, maybe by a
year from now or the second half of next year," he said.
In May, the International Monetary Fund unveiled a $50
billion proposal to end the COVID-19 pandemic by vaccinating at
least 40% of the population in all countries by the end of 2021
and at least 60% by the first half of 2022.
"That is the deal of the century," said Lowcock, adding that
the G7 could also have done a lot more to provide vital supplies
- such as oxygen ventilators, testing kits and protective
equipment - to countries who are going to have to wait longer
for vaccines.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday urged
world leaders to act with more urgency, warning that if
developing countries were not vaccinated quickly, the virus
would continue to mutate and could become immune to inoculation.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols
Editing by Bill Berkrot)