Duterte joins the UN call for unity on vaccines

Manila, Philippines – As nations struggle to secure their supply of limited resources, President Rodrigo Duterte urged other countries to cooperate with the United Nations to ensure universal access to the still-developing COVID-19 vaccines.

Addressing the UN General Assembly for practically the second time this year, Duterte called for unified action to address COVID 19, saying that “collective initiatives at the UN and other multilateral frameworks are our best chance to defeat the pandemic.”

The president also urged other UN members not to back down in the fight against terrorism, as the global health crisis has brought further threats to peace and security.

“When everyone needs the same limited resources, the compulsion to turn to a ‘zero-sum’ approach is amplified,” but the pandemic calls for more cooperation, he said.

“If any country is excluded due to poverty or lack of strategic importance, this great injustice will haunt the world for a long time,” he said. “We cannot allow this to happen. No one is safe until everyone is safe. “

He said the Philippines supports the global medical and scientific initiatives forged in the World Health Organization (WHO), adding that the country would do its part in contributing to the pooling of global resources and help other countries without preconditions.

One of the WHO initiatives is the Vaccine Solidarity Trials, which will also be carried out in the Philippines.

But the trials, which were supposed to start in November, were postponed again to January as the global health agency evaluated candidate vaccines for use, said doctor and microbiologist Niña Gonzales-Gloriani, who heads the panel of experts on vaccines of the country.

Of the five candidate vaccines under consideration, Gloriani declined to identify the candidates, but two of them are the “most promising” despite certain problems that have yet to be resolved.

“These [candidate vaccines] They have been on our radar and studied by the panel of vaccine experts, so it won’t take us long. These are leading vaccines because they must be in an advanced stage to be considered [for inclusion,” she told reporters on Friday.

But while the WHO pushed its search for a vaccine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried countries that rejected facts about the coronavirus pandemic and ignored guidance from the WHO.

“From the start, the World Health Organization provided factual information and scientific guidance that should have been the basis for a coordinated global response,” Guterres said.

“Unfortunately, many of these recommendations were not followed. And in some situations, there was a rejection of facts and an ignoring of the guidance. And when countries go in their own direction, the virus goes in every direction,” he said. —WITH REPORTS FROM JOVIC YEE AND REUTERS

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