Vaccine Group Setting up Plans for Future Pandemics

Vaccine¹ Group Setting up Plans for Future Pandemics

The Global Alliance for Vaccines² and Immunization, or GAVI, struggled to buy vaccines for needy³ countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization said it has now set up plans to draw money immediately if it needs to buy vaccines for future pandemics.

GAVI Chief Executive Seth Berkley said that, in 2020 and 2021, GAVI was limited in its ability to buy COVID-19 vaccines. Although donors⁵ had promised to give GAVI $2.4 billion, the group only had $400 million in cash on hand.

Berkley told Reuters: "We've now put in a series of really interesting instruments. Some here in the U.S., some in Europe, that allow us to front-load donor⁴ funding... we can then go ahead and make those commitments and start spending, knowing that those donors' funds will come."

"The idea would be to have enough to jumpstart it," Berkley said. In April, GAVI announced a similar funding plan of $4.8 billion as part of its COVID response.

GAVI and the World Health Organization (WHO) ran the international COVAX program. That partnership⁶ provides COVID-19 vaccines to the world's poorer countries. COVAX has sent more than 1.72 billion vaccine treatments to 146 countries.

Still, the group struggled to buy enough vaccines to share with poor countries in the first half of 2021. Berkley said that was because some countries, including the United States, India, South Africa and Britain, wanted to keep a large number of vaccines for themselves.

"All across the world, there were countries saying, ‘We're only going to take care of ourselves first,'" he said. Berkley said that for future pandemics it will be important to make vaccines in more places and develop vaccine manufacturing ability in smaller countries like Singapore and Rwanda.

Now, improved production has led to an oversupply⁷ of vaccines this year. Since June, COVAX has even been asking vaccine makers⁸ to cut or slow deliveries of 400 million to 600 million vaccine treatments. COVAX already has 300 to 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses available if countries need more supply, Berkley said.

Words in This Story

global – adj. something that exists in or affects all parts of the world

alliance – n. a merging⁹ of efforts or interests by persons, families, states, or organizations

allow - v. to let do, happen, permit or let

funding – n. a sum of money set aside for some particular purpose

commitment - n. a pledge or promise; obligation

jumpstart - v. to make a process or system start working quickly or effectively

1 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

2 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

3 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

4 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

5 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

7 oversupply   

n.供应过量；v.过度供给

参考例句：

• The market softened because of oversupply.市场因供过于求而疲软。
• Overexpansion of tea fields has led to oversupply.茶园过度扩张，使得市场上逐渐供过于求。

8 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 merging   

合并（分类）

参考例句：

• Many companies continued to grow by merging with or buying competing firms. 许多公司通过合并或收买竞争对手的公司而不断扩大。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• To sequence by repeated splitting and merging. 用反复分开和合并的方法进行的排序。