The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has estimated that if a novel coronavirus vaccine is not distributed to developing countries in regions such as Africa and Asia, the Japanese economy will suffer a loss of about 1 yen. 4 trillion over the next five years.
The report was presented during the online GZERO Summit on Wednesday. The foundation established by Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda commissioned the Eurasia Group, which hosts the summit, to compile the report.
The report pointed out that if the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, does not stop in developing countries, there will be fewer tourists and students coming to Japan and fewer Japanese manufacturing exports. It also called for an equitable supply of vaccines to developing countries, saying that a pandemic cannot be overcome by a single country. The report stresses that Japan should play a leading role in international cooperation frameworks such as COVAX, through which several countries jointly purchase vaccines to provide access to them for other countries.
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