The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has mooted a proposal with a total cost of around $50 billion to vaccinate at least 40 per cent of the population in all countries by the end of 2021 and at least 60 per cent by the first half of 2022.
“The world does not have to live through the pain of another record surge of COVID-19 cases. With strong global action now and with very little in terms of financing relative to the outsized benefits, we can durably exit this health crisis,” IMF said.
Saving lives and livelihoods should need no justification, but a faster end to the pandemic could also inject the equivalent of $9 trillion into the global economy by 2025 due to a faster resumption of economic activity, the IMF has mooted.
Advanced economies, likely to spend the most in this effort, would see the highest return on public investment in modern history – capturing 40 per cent of the cumulative $9 trillion in global GDP gains and roughly $1 trillion in additional tax revenues.
“It is well understood that there can be no lasting end to the economic crisis without an end to the health crisis. Pandemic policy is thus economic policy. It is critical for global macroeconomic and financial stability, which makes it of fundamental importance to the IMF and other economic institutions. Ending the pandemic is a solvable problem but requires further coordinated global action,” IMF said.
The strategy paper includes track and insure against downside risks, ensure widespread testing and tracing, maintain adequate stocks of therapeutics, and enforce public health measures in places where vaccine coverage is low.
Importantly, the strategy requires not just commitments but upfront financing, upfront vaccine donations, and at-risk’ investment for the world to insure against downside scenarios.