Former Heads of State Urge U.S. to Commit $5 Billion to Global Covid Fight

WASHINGTON — A group of former heads of state and Nobel laureates is calling on the United States to immediately commit $5 billion to combat the global coronavirus pandemic, and activists are pressing President Biden to take a more forceful leadership role in the response as he convenes world leaders for a Covid-19 summit on Thursday.

“I want America to recognize that the disease is not over anywhere until it’s over everywhere,” Gordon Brown, a former British prime minister who is leading the push for funding, said in an interview Monday. He added, “We must not sleepwalk into the next variant.”

But Mr. Biden conceded Monday afternoon that “much-needed funding” for the Covid-19 response is not coming anytime soon. In a statement issued by the White House, the president said congressional leaders in both parties had informed him that including the funding in a new aid package for Ukraine would “slow down action on the urgently needed Ukrainian aid,” so he was resigned to having the two packages move separately.

“However, let me be clear: As vital as it is to help Ukraine combat Russian aggression, it is equally vital to help Americans combat Covid,” Mr. Biden wrote, adding that both the domestic and the global response would suffer if the funding is not approved.

Mr. Biden has asked Congress to authorize $22.5 billion in emergency coronavirus aid, including $5 billion for the global pandemic, but the request has stalled on Capitol Hill. A compromise proposal for $10 billion in emergency aid includes no money for the global response, meaning Mr. Biden will almost certainly arrive at his own summit empty-handed. Mr. Brown said in the interview that his appeal is intended to place pressure on Congress to release the funds.

The summit, a virtual gathering that will be hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal, is aimed at reinvigorating the global response. The need is urgent: The drive to vaccinate the world is losing steam. Testing has plummeted around the globe. And efforts to bring tests and Covid antiviral pills to low- and middle-income nations are stalled, running into obstacles that recall battles fought 20 years ago around H.I.V.

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