Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday announced the new goal of a $10 billion global fund to fight the current pandemic and prevent future ones, which she said the United States would kick off by committing $250 million to the investment.

What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday announced the new goal of a $10 billion global fund to fight the current pandemic and prevent future ones

  • The U.S. would kick off the health security fund by committing $250 million, Harris said, with the goal of another $850 million in the future

  • The new fund was the suggestion of world leaders on a key G20 panel, and it would be overseen by the World Bank

  • President Biden began the COVID summit Wednesday by announcing another 500 million shots would be globally donated by the U.S. and asking other countries to step up as well

The vice president called on countries and corporations to contribute to the new global health security fund, which will be overseen by the World Bank.

Working with Congress, the U.S. will first commit $250 million to the fund with the goal of contributing another $850 million, Harris said.

“The work to end this pandemic and prepare for the next is a strategic imperative,” the vice president said during a session of the president’s global COVID Summit held Wednesday virtually on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. “It is essential to our security and to our shared prosperity, and it will save countless lives.”

“This pandemic caught us off guard, and it should not have. We have learned the cost of failing to prepare,” she added.  “With every death, we have learned all too much the seriousness of that cost. And it is time, then, to act.”

The total funding goal for the new Global Health Security Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) is $10 billion, and it’s an effort that was inspired by a suggestion of a key G20 panel.

“That is a fraction of a percent of global GDP,” the vice president said.

Vice President Harris on Wednesday spoke about the need to fund the global fight against the current pandemic while also preparing for future ones, “a future in which all nations have equal capacity to prevent, detect and respond to biological threats and are equally held to account,” she said.

Earlier in the COVID summit, President Joe Biden also announced new commitments to fight the pandemic around the world: a doubling of the U.S. donation of shots to total one billion doses and a goal of vaccinating 70% of the global population in the next year. He also promised an additional $370 million toward administering vaccines around the world and called on other nations to make new contributions as well.