Smallpox Vaccine Commitment Tracker
By Zain Rizvi
On June 13, 2022, Public Citizen sent a letter to the Biden administration urging the U.S. to fulfill its pledge to share smallpox vaccines with the World Health Organization (WHO), and help lead the global response against monkeypox. According to a 2019 WHO document,
The WHO Smallpox Vaccine Emergency Stockpile consists of a physical stockpile of 2.8 million doses of vaccine held and managed in Switzerland by the WHO Secretariat, of which an inventory was completed in July 2018, and a pledged stockpile of 27 million doses held by the Member States: France, Germany, New Zealand and the United States of America. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland provided a financial contribution to procure vaccine for the WHO physical stockpile.
Public Citizen identified the specific national commitments from a review of publicly available records. The WHO has not yet said whether the pledged smallpox doses have been made available to the organization for use against monkeypox. The tracker will be updated regularly.
| Country | Pledged Doses | Source |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 20 million | HHS |
| France | 5 million | WHO |
| Germany | 2 million | German reports |
| New Zealand | Unknown (likely <500k) | WHO |