LONDON - The G7 nations will have accumulated close to a billion spare vaccine doses by the end of 2021, analysis suggests, as campaigners warn unequal access to Covid jabs will prolong the pandemic and endanger millions of lives across the globe.
A billion vaccines would be enough to fully immunise the 30 least-vaccinated countries, the majority of which are in Africa.

Scientific advisers to the UK government have urged ministers to take more action in supporting overseas vaccination efforts to combat rising global infections and to prevent the emergence of new variants, while the World Health Organisation (WHO) has condemned international leaders for stockpiling doses and making them unavailable to the rest of the world.

Yet analysis from science analytics company Airfinity suggests that, by the end of the year, Britain and its fellow G7 nations will have hoarded 977,813,000 of leftover vaccine doses desperately needed in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Many of these nations - including Namibia, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Macedonia - won’t have immunised even 20 per cent of their populations by the beginning of 2022, according to current vaccination rates.