WASHINGTON - Rich nations representing a fraction of the global population have already bought up over half the promised Covid-19 vaccine stocks, a study showed, as US President Donald Trump pledged to begin inoculating Americans within weeks.
But a study released by Oxfam showed a group of wealthy countries representing just 13 per cent of the world population has already secured the lion's share of doses. Some 51 per cent of those jabs have been snapped up by the wealthy world, including the United States, Britain, the European Union, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel.
"We're very close to that vaccine as you know... We think we can start sometime in October" or shortly thereafter, Mr Trump said. But in an implicit swipe at Mr Trump's America First approach to the pandemic, Ms von der Leyen said Europe would support multilateral bodies such as the World Health Organisation with its attempts at a more equitable rollout."Vaccine nationalism puts lives at risk. Vaccine cooperation saves them."
The country posted a record contraction of 12.2 per cent for the April-June quarter, which coincided with a strict lockdown from March to May.