WHO flags global vaccine inequity, appeals to rich countries to share doses
The global health agency’s chief said countries with sufficient vaccines were opening up, while others were grappling with surge in cases.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday criticised rich countries for their reluctance in sharing Covid-19 vaccines with the low-income ones, adding that vaccine inequity had exposed the unfairness of the world.
The WHO chief said during a press briefing that the Covid-19 situation was like the HIV/AIDS crisis, where some sides expressed doubts that poorer countries won’t be able to utilise complicated treatments and used that as a pretext not to share therapeutics with them.
“That attitude has to be a thing of the past,” Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “The problem now is a supply problem, just give us the vaccines.”
The WHO chief said the fundamental problem of lack of vaccines was creating a “two-track pandemic”. “Those who are getting vaccines are getting better significantly and they are opening up their societies,” he said. “Those who don’t have vaccines are facing serious Covid situation, with serious surges in cases and deaths.”
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the situation in African countries was especially worrisome. “Our world is failing, as the global community we are failing,” he added.
The WHO chief said that the whole world was “sick and tired” of lockdowns. “The citizens of rich countries are so happy,” he said. “Its opened up. Restaurants and streets are full. Then you go to countries where there is no vaccines. We need vaccines, we have the tools to open the world up.”
WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan also criticised rich countries for the vaccine inequity. “The level of paternalism, the level of colonial mindset that say ‘we can’t give you something because we’re afraid you won’t use it’,” he said, according to Reuters. “I mean seriously, in the middle of a pandemic?”
The global health agency is running COVAX, an initiative to deliver vaccines to low-income countries. Under this initiative, 90 million or 9 crore doses have been delivered to 132 countries since February, according to Reuters.
However, COVAX is facing supply problems due to India’s ban on the export of Covid vaccines. The ban was enforced in March to meet local demand in India amid a surge in infections.
Globally, the coronavirus disease has infected over 18 crore people and killed more than 39.08 lakh since the pandemic broke out in December 2019, according to Johns Hopkins University.