The presidents of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, and the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, on Tuesday complained about the vaccine distribution mechanism of the World Health Organization (WHO), Covax, because, as they said, “it is a failure”.
In a dialogue between leaders at the close of the 13th Ibero-American Business Meeting in Andorra, both were dissatisfied with the distribution of sera through this fund promoted by public and private actors which aims to ensure equitable access for all countries.
The President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, and the President of that country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Head of the Government of Andorra, Xavier Espot, also took part in this dialogue, which was moderated by the Secretary Latin American general, Rebeca Grynspan.
“The Covax system was a failure, I said it myself protesting against that irresponsibility, where a small group of countries have all the vaccines and the large amount we do not have access to,” Giammattei protested.
The president said that of the three million doses that were to reach Guatemala through this mechanism, “Only 81,000 have arrived” and have already obtained more -200,000- through a direct agreement with India.
“We bought Sputnik outside the Covax mechanisms, which is a failure. We need a more supportive world,” he added.
For his part, the Dominican leader shared the opinion of his counterpart and explained that his country had already requested “to be able to have a patent agreement in order to be able to produce” at the national level.
“It was not realized, I understand that each country wants to have vaccines for its people first, but I think we lacked creativity in this regard,” said Abinader.