washington president joe biden appealed to world leaders at a covid19 summit thursday to reenergize a lagging international commitment to attacking the virus as he led the us in marking the tragic milestone of 1 million deaths in america he ordered flags lowered to halfstaff and warned against complacency around the globethis pandemic isnt over biden declared at the second global pandemic summit he spoke solemnly of the onceunthinkable us toll 1 million empty chairs around the family dinner tablethe coronavirus has killed more than 999000 people in the us and at least 62 million people globally since it emerged in late 2019 according to figures compiled by johns hopkins university other counts including by the american hospital association american medical association and american nurses association have the toll at 1 milliontoday we mark a tragic milestone here in the united states 1 million covid deaths he saidthe president called on congress to urgently provide billions of dollars more for testing vaccines and treatments something lawmakers have been unwilling to deliver so farthat lack of funding biden has requested an additional 225 billion in what he calls critically needed money is a us reflection of faltering resolve that jeopardizes the global response to the pandemic he sayseight months after he used the first covid summit to announce an ambitious pledge to donate 12 billion vaccine doses to the world the urgency of the us and other nations to respond has wanedmomentum on vaccinations and treatments has faded even as more infectious variants rise and billions of people across the globe remain unprotectedbiden addressed the opening of the virtual summit thursday morning with recorded remarks and made the case that tackling covid19 must remain an international priority the us is cohosting the summit along with germany indonesia senegal and belizethis summit is an opportunity to renew our efforts to keep our foot on the gas when it comes to getting this pandemic under control and preventing future health crises biden saidthe us has shipped nearly 540 million vaccine doses to more than 110 countries and territories according to the state department far more than any other donor nationthe leaders announced about 3 billion in new commitments to fight the virus along with a host of new programs meant to boost access to vaccines and treatments around the world but that was a far more modest outcome than at last years meetingat the global level all countries big or small rich or poor must have equal access to health solutions indonesian president joko widodo said in his remarksafter the delivery of more than 1 billion vaccines to the developing world the problem is no longer a lack of shots but of logistical support to get doses into arms according to government data more than 680 million donated vaccine doses have been left unused in developing countries because they were expiring and couldnt be administered quickly enough as of march 32 poorer countries had used less than half of the