![\"Researching](\"https:\/\/specials-images.forbesimg.com\/imageserve\/5f4eb0c56b657bd52ee18c77\/960x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=5444&cropY1=68&cropY2=3131\")
<\/div>Researching vaccine to novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Close-up shot of a scientist preparing glass\u00a0… [+]<\/span><\/p>\n GETTY<\/small><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Covax is co-led by the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi, which aims to purchase\u00a02 billion doses<\/a>\u00a0of potential Covid-19 shots from several vaccine makers by the end of 2021 and distribute them worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The WHO\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0last week that Covax plans to work with vaccine manufacturers to provide countries worldwide equitable access to safe and effective vaccines, once they are licensed and approved, and that 172 countries are engaged in discussions to potentially participate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On Monday, the European Commission confirmed it would\u00a0contribute 400 million euros<\/a>\u00a0($478 million) to the initiative, and the WHO said\u00a0Germany had joined<\/a>\u00a0the pact as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “The United States will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,”\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Judd Deere, a spokesman for the White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n According to<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar had “interest in exploring some type of role in Covax\u2026 but there was resistance in some corners of the government and a belief that the U.S. has enough coronavirus vaccine candidates in advanced clinical trials that it can go it alone.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The World Health Organization has warned against “vaccine nationalism<\/a>,” with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus\u00a0stating<\/a>, “for the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalized world: the economies are intertwined.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n After initially praising both China and the WHO at the pandemic’s outset, President Donald Trump sharply reversed course. In early April, Trump\u00a0blasted<\/a>\u00a0the World Health Organization, saying they “called it wrong” on the virus, that the WHO was “very China-centric<\/a>” in its approach, and froze U.S. funding to the organization. “They should have known and they probably did know,”\u00a0Trump said<\/a>\u00a0of World Health Organization officials, suggesting the group had gone along with China’s efforts to downplay the severity of the outbreak. In July, the administration sent a letter signaling its intent to\u00a0withdraw from the WHO<\/a>. “When the U.S. says it is not going to participate in any sort of multilateral effort to secure vaccines, it’s a real blow,”\u00a0said Suerie Moon<\/a>, co-director of the Global Health Center at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. “The behavior of countries when it comes to vaccines in this pandemic will have political repercussions beyond public health.”<\/p>\n “Equal access to a COVID-19 vaccine is the key to beating the virus and paving the way for recovery from the pandemic,”\u00a0said Stefan L\u00f6fven<\/a>, the prime minister of Sweden. “This cannot be a race with a few winners, and the COVAX Facility is an important part of the solution \u2013 making sure all countries can benefit from access to the world’s largest portfolio of candidates and fair and equitable distribution of vaccine doses.”<\/p>\nKEY FACTS<\/h2>\n
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