Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg is presented during a “Friday for the Future” protest in front of the Swedish Riksdagen Parliament in Stockholm on October 9, 2020.
JONATHAN NACKSTRAND | AFP | Getty Images
LONDON – Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Monday urged world leaders to do more to combat the inequity of the Covid-19 vaccine, describing the growing gap between the number of fires in high-income countries and those in developing countries. low income as “tragedy.”
Currently, an average of one in four people in high-income countries has received a Covid vaccine, compared to just one in over 500 for people in low-income countries.
The trend comes despite repeated warnings from health experts that a delay in the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide could facilitate the emergence of new strains of disease and prolong the pandemic.
Thunberg, through his foundation, will donate 100,000 euros ($ 120,000) to the WHO Foundation in support of COVAX, an initiative that works for global equitable access to Covid vaccines.
“The international community needs to do more to address the tragedy of vaccine inequity. We have the means to correct the great imbalance that exists around the world today in the fight against COVID-19,” Thunberg said in a statement.
“As with the climate crisis, we need to help the most vulnerable first. That is why I support the WHO, Gavi and all those involved in the COVAX initiative, which I believe offers the best way forward to ensure the true fairness of vaccines and a way out of the pandemic, “she added.
Thunberg said earlier this month that he would not attend this year’s COP26, a high-level UN climate summit, if current vaccination trends continue.
“Moral test”
“It is completely unethical that high-income countries now vaccinate young and healthy people if this happens to the detriment of people in risk groups and on the front lines of low- and middle-income countries,” Thunberg said during a briefing. virtual to the WHO.
“This is a moral test, we are talking today about demonstrating solidarity and yet the nationalism of the vaccine is what drives the distribution of vaccines,” she added.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, thanked Thunberg for his plea in support of vaccine equity and for his donation to COVAX. He said Thunberg, 18, was the youngest person to contribute to the initiative.
“Greta Thunberg has inspired millions of people around the world to take action to address the climate crisis, and her strong support for vaccine equity to combat the COVID-19 pandemic once again demonstrates her commitment to making our world a healthier place.” safer and fairer for all people, “Tedros said.
“I urge the global community to follow Greta’s example and do all they can, in support of COVAX, to protect the world’s most vulnerable people from this pandemic,” he added.
Tedros said earlier that one of the WHO’s top priorities is to increase COVAX’s ambition to help all countries end the pandemic.
COVAX was expected to deliver nearly 100 million vaccines to humans by the end of March, but has so far distributed only 38 million doses.
Workers are sitting next to a plane that delivered the first batch of PfizerBioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) to Kiev International Airport, Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. (Photo credit should read Pavlo_Bagmut / Ukrinform / Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Pavlo Bagmut | Ukrinform | Barcroft Media through Getty Images
The WHO said it hoped the initiative would be able to recover in the coming months, but condemned what it described as a “shocking imbalance” in vaccine distribution among high- and low-income countries.
The health agency also criticized countries that sought their own vaccination offers outside the COVAX initiative for political or commercial reasons.
The international struggle to secure a wide range of Covid vaccines may make sense from the perspective of an individual country, but it has led to profound inequities in global allocation.
Canada, for example, has purchased enough Covid vaccines to inoculate its entire population five times, according to data compiled by researchers at Duke University’s Global Health Innovation Center.
At a G-7 virtual summit in February, the group of major economies issued a statement pledging to “intensify cooperation on the health response to Covid-19.
The G-7 also promised support for “accessible and equitable access to vaccines, therapies and diagnoses, reflecting the role of extended immunization as a global public good.”