Health workers administer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents of the Jackson Heights neighborhood of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church. Johns, January 10, 2021, in Tampa, Florida.
Octavio Jones | Getty Images
LONDON – The head of the World Health Organization said Monday that the equitable distribution of coronavirus vaccines poses a “serious risk”.
Warning of a “catastrophic moral failure”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that “the recent emergence of fast-spreading variants makes the rapid and equitable launch of vaccines all the more important”.
But he added that this distribution could easily become “another brick in the wall for inequality between those in the world and those who do not”.
“As the first vaccines begin to be deployed, the promise of fair access poses a serious risk,” he said at a WHO executive committee session.
While more than 39 million doses of several different vaccines have now been given in at least 49 higher-income countries, he said, only 25 doses have been given in a low-income country.
“I have to be direct, the world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure and the price of that failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”
Beginning with his speech, Tedros stressed that the development and approval of safe coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the virus appeared in China at the end of 2019 was an “amazing achievement and a much-needed source of hope.”
However, he added that “it is not right for younger and healthier adults in rich countries to be vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries”.
“There will be enough vaccine for everyone, but right now we need to work together as one global family to prioritize (those) most at risk of serious illness and death in all countries.”
Without naming names, Tedros said some countries and companies speak the language of fair access, but continue to prioritize bilateral transactions, bypassing COVAX, which is raising prices and trying to jump to the front line. “It’s wrong,” he said.
COVAX is a global scheme run by an international vaccine alliance called Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and also the WHO. It was established to ensure equitable access to vaccines for every country in the world. Its goal is to provide 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines that have passed WHO regulatory approval and / or prequalification by the end of 2021.
The WHO has called on richer countries that have pre-ordered millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines, such as the US, UK and Europe, to share some of these vaccines with COVAX so that they can redistribute them to poorer countries.
Wealthier nations have been accused of “accumulating” more vaccines than they need, although the supply of vaccines is still in its infancy, as mass inoculation actions – which began in the West in December – are mainly still in the early stages of development. distribution.
Tedros called on countries that have concluded bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturers and supply controls to be “transparent with COVAX in terms of volumes, prices and delivery dates” and to share their own doses with COVAX once they have vaccinated. medical staff and the elderly population.