Mexico will file a complaint with the UN over vaccine distribution

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Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters on Tuesday that the Mexican delegation to the United Nations will file a complaint tomorrow with the UN Security Council on the “inequality” and “inequity” that, according to him, they prevent access to the vaccine.

“The countries that produce [vaccines] they have higher vaccination rates and Latin America and the Caribbean have much less, “Ebrard said.” We will raise it with the Security Council because it is not fair, “he concluded.

Mexico has struggled with its deployment of vaccines, so far it has only administered about 750,000 doses of vaccine, despite having signed purchase agreements for the eventual delivery of more than 230 million doses of various Covid-19 vaccines.

With scarce supplies, the Mexican government’s concern about whether some countries are accumulating vaccines is shared by many around the world.

The richest countries such as the United States, Israel, China and the United Kingdom are at the top or near the list in number of vaccines administered so far, while many poorer countries still do not offer a single dose.

“While vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the poor and those without the world,” the director general of the World Health Organization said in January. , Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“While they speak the language of equitable access, some countries and companies continue to prioritize bilateral agreements … raising prices and trying to jump to the front of the queue. That’s wrong,” he said.

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WHO officials are concerned that this type of behavior could jeopardize its equitable distribution, called Covax. Covax plans to distribute about 2 billion doses of the vaccine worldwide by the end of this year, many of which would go to poorer countries.

Mexico’s complaint at Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting will focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, a poor part of the world especially devastated by the pandemic.

Distribution of Covax has not yet begun, although it announced plans earlier this month to distribute more than 35 million vaccine doses across the region by the end of the second quarter, with the possibility of more if supplies are available.

But that means a drop of 500 million people in the region, according to the Pan American Health Organization, which needs to be vaccinated to control the pandemic.

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