All countries must be vaccinated to end pandemic, says World Bank chief

All countries must be vaccinated to end pandemic, says World Bank chief

Serious capacity constraints on vaccination programmes pose the biggest threat to the ambitious goal that all 7 billion people across the globe be offered Covid-19 protection within a year, the World Bank's president has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, David Malpass said delivery systems in poor countries and the fact that so many vaccines were going to rich countries were more important factors than money in ensuring success.

Malpass said beating the pandemic required all countries to be immunised and that the global community should already be preparing for the next crisis.

“One goal the world should have is to prepare for future disasters, other pandemics that will require vaccine systems, and both manufacturing and delivery capacity. I do not expect this to be the only crisis of global proportions.

“Let's look ahead. We both need to resolve this crisis and that takes urgency and capacity, but we also need to make the investments that will pay off over the next decade and the next 50 years.”

Last week the G7 committed an extra $7.5bn to pay for vaccine doses for developing countries. Malpass said the World Bank, which lends to developing nations, would have programmes running in 12 countries by the end