WASHINGTON — As world leaders meet today at the global COVID-19 summit convened by President Joe Biden, new analysis released by The ONE Campaign shows that if current vaccination rates continue, the new 70% vaccine target that world leaders are expected to commit to will be missed by a total of 1.2 billion people across 107 countries – leaving more than 2.3 billion people around the world still unvaccinated by September 2022.

President Biden will reportedly announce that the US will purchase an additional 500 million vaccines to donate to countries around the world, bringing the total US commitment to 1.1 billion doses. To date, less than 2 percent of people living in low-income countries have had their first vaccine dose. To meet the 70% target, wealthy countries must urgently increase support for global vaccination efforts.

Tom Hart will be attending the summit and recorded a video for the event pressing world leaders to be bolder and braver in their global COVID-19 commitments. Watch Tom’s remarks here.

Tom Hart, Acting CEO at ONE:

“This is the type of momentum the world needs going into the Global COVID-19 summit. As we have seen with the delta variant, the longer we wait to vaccinate the world, the higher the threat for us at home. This isn’t just a global health issue, it’s a national security crisis and a global economic crisis.

“We are past the point of urgency to end this pandemic. Everyone is on the hook to agree to a global plan to get 70% of the world vaccinated. This donation gets us closer to that goal, but the US cannot do this alone, other wealthy countries must be bolder and more ambitious.”