GENEVA, Switzerland (CU)_The world is on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” on account of unequal COVID vaccine policies, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.
Speaking at a WHO executive board session on Monday (Jan 18), the Director general of the Agency, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said it was unfair that young and healthy people of richer nations receive COVID-19 vaccines before older and vulnerable groups in poorer states.
According to Dr. Tedros, over 39 million vaccine doses had been given in 49 richer states, while only one poor nation had received merely 25 doses.
“I need to be blunt: the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure – and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries,” he said.
He noted that a “me-first” approach of these richer countries would ultimately “prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering”.
Therefore, he called on developed nations to provide their full commitment to the global vaccine-sharing scheme Covax, which is due to start rolling out next month.
“My challenge to all member states is to ensure that by the time World Health Day arrives on 7 April, Covid-19 vaccines are being administered in every country, as a symbol of hope for overcoming both the pandemic and the inequalities that lie at the root of so many global health challenges,” he said.
The Covax initiative, supported by the WHO and a group of international vaccine advocacy groups, aims to accelerate the development and manufacturinf of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. So far, more than 180 countries have signed up for the initiative, which will fund the vaccine supply for 92 low and middle-income countries.
Reacting to Dr Tedros’ recent comments, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that the United Kingdom is the world’s biggest supporter of the programme, and the country has provided the most financial assistance in these international efforts to ensure everybody has access to vaccines.
It is reported that the UK government has provided £548m ($734m) to the Covax programme.
Last month, the People’s Vaccine Alliance said rich countries were hoarding doses of Covid-19 vaccines and therefore people living in poor countries were set to miss out.
Canada, in particular, came in for criticism, as it has been reported that the North American nation had ordered enough vaccine doses to protect each Canadian five times.
Despite a plea from the World Health Organisation, the Canadian government said last week that it is still too early to plan the distribution of the country’s surplus vaccines for lower-income countries.
A spokesperson for Canada’s International Development Minister Karina Gould, said the government would make decisions about the surplus doses once it has “a better sense of which vaccines are approved and of what stage our vaccination efforts are at”.
Meanwhile, an interim report issued by an independent panel commissioned by the WHO criticised both the WHO and China for their Covid responses. The experts said Beijing should have acted more forcefully to localise the initial outbreak which was first detected in the city of Wuhan, and also criticised the WHO for its delay in declaring a global emergency.
“The global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose,” the report said. “The World Health Organization has been underpowered to do the job.”
