More than 150 countries have agreed to a plan to enable the rapid and equitable distribution of a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, the Guardian reports.
The global vaccine agreement, called the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility, is co-led by the World Health Organization and plans to deliver about 2 billion vaccine doses around the world by the end of 2021, it adds. The plan calls for a vaccine to be shared equally among wealthy and developing nations. The Guardian reports that 152 countries, including the member states of the European Union, have now signed on.
COVAX additionally aims to fend off growing "vaccine nationalism," in which countries stockpile vaccines for themselves.
"This is a mechanism that enables global coordination of the rollout for the greatest possible impact and will help bring the pandemic under control and ensure the race for vaccines is a collaboration not a contest," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said during a briefing, according to the Guardian.
Earlier this month, the US announced it would not be participating in the effort as it involves the WHO, an organization President Donald Trump has criticized and from which the US is in the process of withdrawing.