The Latest: French leader promotes vaccine efforts for poor

PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron is urging stepped-up international efforts to get vaccines to poor countries, and wants China and Russia more involved.

While France’s own vaccination program has suffered from delivery delays and bureaucratic troubles, Macron told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in an interview published Sunday that “African countries are asking us, justifiably, about their access to vaccines.”

Macron met with global pharmaceutical CEOs and vaccine experts in recent days to discuss programs to fight vaccine inequality, to help end the pandemic and revive economies faster. Among those programs is the U.N.-backed COVAX, which has suffered a slow start because of funding shortages and lack of commitment from some major world powers.

“We must speed up this effort further because each week counts,” Macron was quoted as saying. He also said vaccines made in China and Russia should be “integrated into this great multilateral effort against the pandemic.”

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

Scientists say it’s still too early to predict the future of the coronavirus, but many doubt it will ever go away entirel y. Germany tightens border checks to keep out virus variants. Japan has formally approved its first COVID-19 vaccine. China fires back at U.S. COVID probe allegations. A tight supply creates reluctance over federal vaccine sites.

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