WHO: COVID-19 vaccines risk “catastrophic moral failure” in distribution

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The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned on Monday that the world is “on the verge of a catastrophic moral failure” due to the unequal distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Why does it matter: Tedros noted during an executive session that 39 million doses of the vaccine were given in 49 higher-income countries, while a lower-income nation had “only 25 doses.”

  • This “I-first” approach will “eventually prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it and human and economic suffering,” he added.

Note: The WHO itself clashed on Monday in an interim report that it responded slowly to the outbreak after it was first detected in late 2019 in China, which was also identified for failures earlier this year.

  • “The global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose,” said the preliminary report of the Independent Group on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, an independent group led by WHO.
  • “WHO has been insufficient to do the job.”

What are they saying: China’s public health measures “could have been applied more forcefully by local and national health authorities” in January, said the group of experts in the report, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

  • The experts noted that it is not clear why the WHO did not meet until the third week of January 2020, nor why it did not agree to declare a public health emergency of international concern until a week later.

What to look for: A team of World Health Organization researchers is in Wuhan, China, investigating the origins of the pandemic.

  • Tedros said his focus is on launching the global COVAX vaccine sharing system, which is set to begin next month. More than 180 countries have signed up to the WHO-led scheme.
  • He hopes that by April 7, World Health Day, COVID-19 vaccines “will be administered in every country as a symbol of hope for overcoming both the pandemic and the inequalities that underlie so many global challenges.” of health”.

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