UN Secretary-General António Guterres strongly criticized the “extremely unequal and unfair” distribution of Covid’s vaccines, saying that 10 countries administered 75% of all vaccines and demanding a global effort so that all people in all countries vaccinated as soon as possible.
The UN chief said at a high-level meeting of the UN security council on Wednesday that 130 countries have not yet received a single dose of the vaccine.
“At this critical moment, vaccine equality is the biggest moral test before the global community,” he said.
Guterres called for an urgent global vaccination plan to bring together those empowered to ensure equitable distribution of the vaccine – scientists, vaccine producers and those who can finance the effort.
He called on the world’s leading economic powers in the Group of 20 to establish an emergency task force to establish a plan and coordinate its implementation and financing. He said the working group must have the capacity to “mobilize pharmaceutical companies and the main players in industry and logistics”.
Guterres said Friday’s meeting of the Group of Seven major industrialized nations – the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Canada and Italy – “can create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources.”
Thirteen ministers attended Britain’s virtual council meeting to improve access to Covid’s vaccines, including in conflict areas.
The coronavirus infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. While manufacturers struggle to increase vaccine production, many countries complain of being left out and even wealthy nations are facing shortages and domestic complaints.
The World Health Organization’s Covax program, a project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest people, has already lost its own goal of starting coronavirus vaccination in poor countries at the same time that the vaccines were launched in rich countries. WHO says Covax needs $ 5 billion in 2021.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the council that the Biden administration “will work with our partners around the world to expand manufacturing and distribution capacity and increase access, including for marginalized populations”.
President Joe Biden joined WHO again and Blinken announced that by the end of February the United States would pay more than $ 200 million in previously assessed and current obligations to the UN agency, which Washington will try to reform.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the growing “immunity divide” and called on the world to “come together to reject ‘vaccine nationalism’, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and, in particular, make them accessible and accessible to developing countries, including those in conflict ”.
At the request of WHO, he said, China will contribute 10 million doses of vaccines to Covax “preliminarily”.
China has donated vaccines to 53 developing countries, including Somalia, Iraq, South Sudan and Palestine, which is a UN observer state. He also exported vaccines to 22 countries, he said, adding that Beijing launched Covid’s research and development cooperation with more than 10 countries.
India’s Foreign Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, also called for an end to “vaccine nationalism” and the encouragement of internationalism. “Accumulating superfluous doses will frustrate our efforts to achieve public health security,” he warned.
Two vaccines, including one developed in India, have received emergency clearance, the minister said, and up to 30 vaccine candidates are at various stages of development.
Jaishankar announced “a gift of 200,000 doses” of vaccine for some 90,000 UN peacekeepers serving at a dozen critical points around the world.
The Foreign Minister of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, whose country is president of the Community of States in Latin America and the Caribbean, called for the acceleration of COVAX and an end to the “undue accumulation” and “monopolization of vaccines”.
He called for priority to be given to countries with limited resources, saying that “it has been pointed out that these countries will not have widespread access until mid-2023 if current trends persist”.
“What we’re seeing is a huge gap,” said Ebrard. “In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a large division affect so many in such a short space of time. That is why it is important to reverse this. “
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whose country holds the presidency of the security council this month and chaired the virtual meeting, asked the most powerful UN body to adopt a resolution calling for a local ceasefire in conflict zones to allow delivery of Covid-19 vaccines.
Britain says that more than 160 million people are at risk of being excluded from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries involved in conflict and instability, including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, opposed the council focused on equitable access to vaccines, saying it went beyond his mandate to preserve international peace and security.