The world is facing a “catastrophic moral failure” in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, with rich countries having more access because they get higher profits, a world health leader accused on Monday.
Although countries like the United States report the distribution of more than 31 million doses to residents so far, poorer countries have received a weak number of vaccines, and this is simply “not right,” the director said. of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“Only 25 doses have been given in a lower-income country: not 25 million, not 25,000, only 25,” said Tedros, who is said by his first name.
The WHO chief did not disclose the name of the country, but a spokeswoman for the agency later said it was Guinea in West Africa.
“I need to be forceful: the world is on the brink of catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said of the world’s current vaccination effort.
“It is right that all governments want to prioritize the vaccination of their own health workers and the elderly. But 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, ”he said at the opening of the agency’s annual executive board meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.
“We now face the real danger that even when vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the worlds of the world that they have and don’t have,” Tedros said.
He said a big problem is that vaccine manufacturers have first gone through the government approval process in rich countries because that is where the money should be made.
“This approach not only puts the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people at risk, but also self-defeats,” the WHO chief insisted, according to the BBC.
“Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, prolong the pain, the restrictions needed to contain it, and the human and economic suffering.”
With publishing cables