Health workers administer the COVID-19 vaccine to residents living in the Jackson Heights neighborhood at St. Louis Missionary Baptist Church. Johns on 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 runs “a serious risk”.
Warning of a “catastrophic moral failure”, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the recent emergence of rapidly spreading variants makes the rapid and equitable deployment of vaccines even more important “.
But he added that this distribution could easily become “another brick in the wall for inequality between those who have the world and those who do not.”
“As the first vaccines begin to be deployed, the promise of equitable access is at serious risk,” he said at a WHO executive board session.
While more than 39 million doses of various vaccines have now been administered in at least 49 higher-income countries, he said, only 25 doses have been administered in a lower-income country.
“I need to be forceful. 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 his speech, Tedros had stressed that the development and approval of safe coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the virus appeared in China in late 2019 was an “impressive 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 a global family to prioritize (those) most at risk for serious illness and death in all countries.”
Without naming names, Tedros said some countries and companies speak the language of equitable access, but continue to prioritize bilateral agreements, skipping COVAX, which raises prices and tries to jump to the front of the line. “That’s wrong,” he said.
COVAX is a global scheme co-led 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 all countries in the world. Its goal is to administer 2 billion doses of safe and effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and / or WHO prequalification by the end of 2021.
The WHO called on richer countries that had 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 it could redistribute them. in the poorest countries.
Richer countries have been accused of “hoarding” more vaccines than they need, although the supply of vaccines is still in its early days, as mass inoculation initiatives (which began in the West in December) are mainly in their first phase of distribution.
Tedros called on countries with bilateral agreements with vaccine manufacturers and supply controls to be “transparent with COVAX in quantities, prices and delivery dates” and to share their own doses with COVAX once their own vaccine professionals have been vaccinated. health and adults. populations.