SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
A Call for a Global Summit to End the COVID-19 Pandemic
Dear World Leaders Attending the 2021 UN General Assembly:
The world is at a perilous and urgent moment in the COVID-19 pandemic. The Delta variant has spread rapidly to more than 130 countries, demonstrating that we are fighting a virus that doesn’t respect borders and advances rapidly across continents.
The best way to prevent further catastrophe is to dramatically decrease worldwide cases and slow transmission of the virus through widespread global vaccination, combined with other public health measures. However, inequitable access to high-quality vaccines and capacity to administer them is prolonging the pandemic and destabilizing economies and societies around the world.
Therefore, we call on world leaders to convene a global summit during this year’s United Nations General Assembly and commit to actions to make 7 billion doses of high-quality vaccines available before the end of 2021 and an additional 7 billion doses by mid-2022; ensure that every country is ready to implement equitable vaccination programs at scale by the end of this year; and vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s population by mid-2022. People everywhere should also have equitable access to tests, therapies, and other proven interventions so lives can be saved using all COVID-19 tools.
A global pandemic needs a global plan of attack. The summit should secure the commitments and actions needed to close the vaccine supply, financing and capacity gaps. Very soon there will be enough supply of high-quality vaccines to assure that all countries can meet the needs of their own citizens and also engage in a global effort to vaccinate everyone. Urgent actions must be taken to increase countries’ distribution and delivery capabilities, which are poised to become the key constraint in the race between vaccines and variants. That is why we need a comprehensive response to the current crisis, which will also strengthen health systems and preparedness for the next pandemic.
We are in a race against time. Without immediate action, there will be millions more infections and deaths, and new variants could emerge and pierce vaccine immunity. We, the undersigned, urge world leaders to align on a common framework for urgent global action by all governments, and private sector leaders, to end the pandemic – everywhere.
Individuals
Ayoade Alakija
Co-Chair, African Union Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance Alliance for COVID-19
Emily Bancroft
President, VillageReach
Georges C. Benjamin
Executive Director, American Public Health Association
Donald M. Berwick
President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and former Administrator, US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Simon Bland
CEO, Global Institute for Disease Elimination
Bono
Co-Founder of ONE and lead singer of U2
James Boomgard
President and Chief Executive Officer, DAI
Ana Botín
Executive Chair, Banco Santander, S.A.
Ian Boyd
Professor, University of St Andrews
John Bridgeland
Co-Founder and CEO, COVID Collaborative and former Director, White House Domestic Policy Council
Larry Brilliant
CEO, Pandefense Advisory, and Senior Counselor, Skoll Foundation
Robert Califf
Professor of Cardiology, Duke University School of Medicine, and former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration
Anthony Costello
Professor of Global Health and Sustainable Development, University College London
Cindy Cox-Roman
Chief Executive Officer, HelpAge USA
Richard Curtis
UN SDG Advocate and Co-Founder of Comic Relief and Project Everyone
Mark Cutifani
Chief Executive, Anglo American Plc
Carlos del Rio
Professor, Emory University School of Medicine; International Secretary, National Academy of Medicine
Polly Dunford
President and Chief Executive Officer, IntraHealth International
Mark Dybul
Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University, and former head of PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria
Warren East
Chief Executive, Rolls-Royce Plc
John Edmunds
Professor, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Gary Edson
President, COVID Collaborative, and former US Deputy National Security Advisor
Kevin Ellis
Chairman and Senior Partner, PwC UK and Middle East
Ezekiel J. Emanuel
Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Co-Director, Healthcare Transformation Institute, Levy University Professor, Perelman School of Medicine and The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and former Special Advisor on Health Policy, Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council
Kate Fall
Senior Advisor, Brunswick Group, and Member of the Lords International Relationship Select Committee
Michael Ferguson
Regis Professor of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
Peter Flavel
CEO Coutts & Co
Julio Frenk
President of the University of Miami and former Secretary of Health of Mexico
William Frist
Former US Senator (R-TN) and former Senate Majority Leader
Monica Gandhi
Professor of Medicine and Associate Division Chief of the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine at UCSF
Earl Gast
President, University Research Co., LLC
Helene Gayle
President and Chief Executive Officer, The Chicago Community Trust
Bruce Gellin
Chief, Global Public Health Strategy, The Rockefeller Foundation
Nikolaj Gilbert
President & CEO, PATH
Amanda Glassman
Executive Vice President, Center for Global Development, CEO of CGD Europe, and Senior Fellow
Karen Goraleski
CEO, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Scott Gottlieb
Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration
Margaret (Peggy) Hamburg
Former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, and former Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Medicine
James Harding
Co-Founder and Editor, Tortoise
Peter Harrison
Group Chief Executive, Schroders plc
Andrew Hayward
Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Inclusion Health Research, University College London
Jeremy Hunt
Former UK Foreign Secretary and Health Secretary
Mo Ibrahim
Founder and Chair, Mo Ibrahim Foundation
Philip Jansen
Chief Executive, BT Group
Liz Jarman
Chief Executive Officer, Living Goods
Salim S. Abdool Karim
Director, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, and member, African Union’s Commission on Covid-19
Peter Kellner
Journalist, Political Commentator, and former President of YouGov
Jimmy Kolker
Former Assistant Secretary, Global Affairs, US Department Health and Human Services
Pascal Lamy
President of the Paris Peace Forum and former Director-General of the WTO
Jack Leslie
Chairman, Weber Shandwick
Gary Lineker
English former Professional Footballer and Current Sports Broadcaster
Peter Mandelson
Former UK First Secretary of State and EU Trade Commissioner
Stanley A. McChrystal
General, US Army (Retired)
Mark McClellan
Director, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Duke University, and former Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration
Michael Merson
Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University
David Miliband
President & CEO, International Rescue Committee
Jamie Bay Nishi
Director, Global Health Technologies Coalition
Michelle Nunn
President and CEO, CARE USA
Christina Pagel
Professor and Director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit, University College London
Björg Pálsdóttir
CEO, Training for Health Equity Network: THEnet
Alan Parker
Chairman, Brunswick Group
Melissa Parker
Professor of Medical Anthropology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Daniel B. Peterson
Executive Director (Interim), Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anaesthesia Care
Deenan Pillay
Professor of Virology and Pro-Vice-Provost International, University College London
Guy Poppy
Professor and Associate Vice President, University of Southampton, and former Chief Scientific Adviser to UK Food Standards Agency
Venki Ramakrishnan
Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
Carolyn Reynolds
Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network
Malcolm Rifkind
Former UK Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Defense
Reeta Roy
President and CEO, Mastercard Foundation
Kathleen Sebelius
Former US Secretary of Health and Human Services
Rajiv J. Shah
President, The Rockefeller Foundation
Bobby Shriver
Co-Founder, ONE & (RED)
Rachel Silverman
Policy Fellow, Center for Global Development
Andy Slavitt
Former Senior Adviser to COVID-19 Response Coordinator, and former Acting Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Jes Staley
Group Chief Executive, Barclays
Elizabeth Stokoe
Professor, Loughborough University
Mona Sutphen
Senior Advisor, The Vistria Group
Eloise Todd
Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network
Krishna Udayakumar
Director, Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Duke University
Marian W. Wentworth
President and CEO, Management Sciences for Health
Michelle A. Williams
Dean of Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Co-Founder, COVID Collaborative
Prashant Yadav
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
Organizations
American Public Health Association
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
CARE
Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa
COVID Collaborative
DAI
Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevoelkerung (DSW)
FIND
The Global Alliance for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma and Anaesthesia Care (G4 Alliance)
Global Citizen
Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC)
Global Institute for Disease Elimination
HelpAge USA
IntraHealth International
LivingGoods
Management Sciences for Health (MSH)
Mo Ibrahim Foundation
ONE
Pandemic Action Network
Paris Peace Forum
PATH
Population Services International (PSI)
Sabin Vaccine Institute
Save the Children
THEnet: The Training for Health Equity Network
Tortoise
UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences
University Research Co. (URC)
White House Global COVID-19 Summit
COVID Collaborative was invited to attend the September 22 Global COVID-19 Summit, hosted by the White House. We were asked to submit a statement outlining COVID Collaborative’s commitment to the Summit targets and the specific actions it will take this fall to end the pandemic and build back better.
