PARIS: Rich countries have secured enough coronavirus vaccines to protect their populations nearly three times as much by the end of 2021, Amnesty International and other groups said Wednesday, possibly starving billions of people in the most areas. poor.
Britain approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine this month, raising hopes that the tide may soon turn against a virus that has killed nearly 1.5 million worldwide, hit the global economy and disrupted the economy. normal life.
Amnesty and other organizations, including Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, urged governments and the pharmaceutical industry to take steps to ensure that the intellectual property of vaccines is widely shared.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also repeatedly called on governments this year to make a vaccine that protects against Covid-19 a “public good.”
WHO has endorsed a global vaccine program scheme known as COVAX, which seeks to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, and 189 countries have joined. But some countries like the United States have not signed up, having secured bilateral agreements.
COVAX expects to deliver about 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, but that would only represent about 20% of the population of the countries that are part of the mechanism.
“Almost 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against Covid-19 next year unless urgent action is taken,” Amnesty International said, based on recent estimates.
“The updated data shows that wealthy nations representing only 14% of the world’s population have purchased 53% of all the most promising vaccines so far,” he said.
Amnesty said that Canada was the country that had purchased the most vaccines when considering the size of its population with enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian five times.
The organization asked for support for a proposal made by South Africa and India to the Council of the World Trade Organization to renounce intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.
Britain approved Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine this month, raising hopes that the tide may soon turn against a virus that has killed nearly 1.5 million worldwide, hit the global economy and disrupted the economy. normal life.
Amnesty and other organizations, including Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, urged governments and the pharmaceutical industry to take steps to ensure that the intellectual property of vaccines is widely shared.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also repeatedly called on governments this year to make a vaccine that protects against Covid-19 a “public good.”
WHO has endorsed a global vaccine program scheme known as COVAX, which seeks to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, and 189 countries have joined. But some countries like the United States have not signed up, having secured bilateral agreements.
COVAX expects to deliver about 2 billion doses by the end of 2021, but that would only represent about 20% of the population of the countries that are part of the mechanism.
“Almost 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against Covid-19 next year unless urgent action is taken,” Amnesty International said, based on recent estimates.
“The updated data shows that wealthy nations representing only 14% of the world’s population have purchased 53% of all the most promising vaccines so far,” he said.
Amnesty said that Canada was the country that had purchased the most vaccines when considering the size of its population with enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian five times.
The organization asked for support for a proposal made by South Africa and India to the Council of the World Trade Organization to renounce intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments.
.
