On 22 September 2021, President Joe Biden held a virtual Global Summit on Covid-19 on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly.

He had predicted the presence of at least 100 states and 100 organizations. In fact, only a handful of developed countries allied to the United States plus a number of assorted organizations showed up.

President Biden has pledged to distribute an additional 500 million doses of vaccines to ensure that 70% of the population in every country is fully vaccinated.

The announcement is baffling considering that Washington did not fulfill its earlier promise to deliver 160 million doses on time, and that the price of these vaccines has since skyrocketed. It is therefore not clear how he intends to finance this effort, having failed to do so when it was much cheaper. Often, in those countries that cannot afford to pay for these products, less than 1% of the population has been vaccinated. It will therefore be particularly difficult for them to fight against the pandemic if they stay on this course.

The massive absence at this summit of countries that should be the primary beneficiaries of this program speaks volumes about their mistrust of both US commitments and the vaccine strategy. Many have already turned to Russia and China for other solutions, especially knowing that, at home, the all-out vaccine strategy championed by the United States has yielded catastrophic results, with deaths per million people over 25 times higher than in China.

This is the first time that a meeting organized by the United States to hand out donations has been boycotted by potential recipients.