WHO Director-General: Some countries vaccinate their entire population, while others do not vaccinate

Inequalities in access to coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor countries are deepening and beginning to become ‘grotesque’, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday, warning that the virus could take the world as hostage for years to come.

In January, I declared that the world would be on the brink of catastrophic moral failure if urgent action was not taken to ensure the equitable distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. We have the tools to avoid this failure, but it is shocking to see how little has happened to avoid it.

He said at a press conference in Geneva Tedrosz Adhanom Gebrejeszusz. The gap between the number of vaccines administered in rich and low-COVAX countries widens by the day, and this becomes more grotesque by the day, the CEO added. The international COVAX program, created at the initiative of WHO, is tasked with vaccinating 20 percent of the population in nearly 200 countries and territories this year and providing financial assistance to 92 low-income countries.

Countries that now vaccinate younger, healthier people and those at lower risk of Covid-19 infection are doing so at the expense of healthcare workers, older people, and other risk groups in other countries.

– emphasized the Director-General of WHO. The poorest countries ask the question: do the rich countries really say what they mean when they talk about solidarity? The unfair distribution of vaccines is not just a moral offense. It is self-destructive in both economic and epidemiological terms, Tedros added.

Some countries vaccinate their entire population, while other countries have nothing. This may provide short-term security, but it is a false sense of security.

– He said. The more Covid-19 spreads, the more variants circulate and appear, the more likely it is that existing vaccines will not be effective, the CEO explained.

The French news agency AFP estimates that more than 430 million doses of the vaccine have been used so far worldwide, more than a quarter in the United States. Israel ranks first in immunization, with nearly 60 percent of the population already receiving at least the first dose.

In low-income countries, only 0.1 percent of the vaccines used in the world were administered, while in high-income countries, which represent 16 percent of the world’s population, more than half received the vaccine.

If we do not end this pandemic as soon as possible, it could hold us hostage for many more years. That is why we say that the distribution of vaccines is in the interest of all countries, Tedros emphasized. The WHO chief urged that vaccine production be increased as soon as possible.

So far, AstraZeneca has been the only company that has pledged not to benefit from its Covid-19 vaccine during a pandemic, he said.