UN hires 40 airlines to deliver Covid vaccine to poorest states

Bloomberg

United Nations humanitarian relief agency Unicef is looking to recruit some of the airline industry’s biggest operators to help distribute a coronavirus vaccine to the world’s poorest nations.
Unicef held a call with about 40 carriers to make plans for the global airlift and to identify what commercial tasks each party can perform, according to Glyn Hughes, head of cargo
at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which helped arrange the meeting.
Unicef, already the No. 1 buyer of vaccines, is leading efforts to purchase and distribute Covid shots to 92 states with funds from the GAVI immunisation program, which brings together governments, the World Health Organization and World Bank. Another 80 higher-income countries have chosen it to procure inoculations they will buy, extending the plan to 70% of the population.
The summons to airlines was triggered by positive late-stage trial results reported by Pfizer and Moderna on two separate vaccines, Hughes said in an interview. Neither has yet been approved for use, but attention is turning towards how a successful shot can be distributed, especially to less well-off countries without the resources for mass purchases.
About 30 of the largest cargo airlines were invited to participate in this call, Hughes said. They included express-delivery specialists such as FedEx and United Parcel Service and dedicated freighter operators like Cargolux Airlines International.
Airline groups with large cargo divisions including Deutsche Lufthansa also took part, alongside passenger carriers with experience in moving specialist goods like Virgin Atlantic Airways. Other participants were regional carriers from Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, where work will largely focus.
In normal times, Unicef
provides aid to children and supplies more than 2 billion inoculations a year.