Vaccine coverage drop during COVID-19 sets back world 25 years in 25 weeks: report

Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Report says extreme poverty has increased by seven per cent, calls for collaboration to tackle pandemic

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s fourth annual Goalkeepers Report, features new data showing how the ripple effects of COVID-19 have stopped 20 years of progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).

According to the report, because of COVID-19, extreme poverty has increased by seven per cent, while vaccine coverage, is dropping to levels last seen in the 1990s, setting the world back about 25 years in 25 weeks.

The report, co-authored by Bill and Melinda Gates, calls on the world to collaborate on the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and treatment; manufacture tests and doses as quickly as possible; and deliver these tools equitably based on need rather than the ability to pay. The report refers to several viable strategies to help achieve an equitable outcome, including the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, which brings together proven organisations like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

“The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us some of the best of humanity: pathbreaking innovation, heroic acts by frontline workers, and ordinary people doing the best they can for their families, neighbors, and communities,” Bill and Melinda Gates write. “This is a shared global crisis that demands a shared global response.”