‘A move that harms America’: Trump condemned after snubbing global coronavirus vaccine scheme

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Global Justice Now, which campaigns on issues of trade, health care and justice in the developing world, warned that Mr Trump’s approach was fuelling a “global scramble by rich countries to hoard potential vaccines” that would “deplete global stocks” for lower income nations. “The fastest way to end this pandemic is through global collaboration and governments should be focusing on multilateral solutions to maximise global supplies while ensuring a fair allocation for all countries based on public health needs.” Alex Harris, the Wellcome Trust’s head of global policy, said: “It is disappointing that the US has decided not to join Covax. The only way we’re going to end this pandemic is if countries work together.” The WHO has warned against the threat of vaccine nationalism, with directer general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus arguing that “for the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalised world: the economies are intertwined.” Dr Joshua Moon, a research fellow in the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, said that Mr Trump’s decision to snub Covax was “fairly par for the course”. Without equitable access to a vaccine, the spread of Sars-CoV-2 will likely remain active elsewhere and repeatedly be imported again and again into the US.” Dr Suerie Moon, co-director of the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, said America’s failure to participate “in any sort of multilateral effort to secure vaccines” marked a “real blow”.