UNITED NATIONS (AP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “extremely unequal and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, saying that 10 countries administered 75 percent of all vaccines and demanding a global effort to get all people in every vaccinated nation as quickly as possible.
The UN chief said at a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council that 130 countries have not received a single dose of the vaccine and declared that “at this critical time, equality of the vaccine is the biggest moral test for the global community”.
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.
And he appealed to 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 task force 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 on improving access to COVID-19 vaccines, including in conflict areas.
The coronavirus infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million people. While manufacturers struggle to increase vaccine production, many countries complain about being left out and even wealthy nations face shortages and domestic complaints.
The World Health Organization’s COVAX program, an ambitious 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 as vaccines were launched in rich countries. WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion in 2021.
United States 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 to increase access, including to marginalized populations”.
President Joe Biden has rejoined WHO and Blinken has announced that by the end of February the United States will pay more than $ 200 million in previously assessed and current obligations to the UN agency, which Washington will try to reform.
America’s top diplomat said the United States also plans to provide “significant financial support” to COVAX through the GAVI vaccine alliance and will work to strengthen other multilateral initiatives involved in COVID-19’s global response. He gave no details.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the growing “division of immunity” and called on the world to “unite 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 has launched COVID-19 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.
Jaishankar said India is at the forefront of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, initially supplying medicines, ventilators and personal protective equipment and now shipping vaccines made in India directly to 25 nations worldwide, with an additional 49 countries in Europe and Latin America for Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands are expected to receive vaccines “in the next few days”.
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.
Mexican Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard, whose country is currently president of the Commonwealth of States in Latin America and the Caribbean, called for the acceleration of COVAX and an end to “undue hoarding” and “vaccine monopolization”.
He called for priority to be given to countries with limited resources, saying “it was 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. “
He urged the international community not to establish mechanisms that can prevent the rapid delivery of vaccines, but to strengthen supply chains “that will promote and guarantee universal access”.
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, whose country holds the presidency of the Security Council this month and chaired the virtual meeting, urged the most powerful UN body to adopt a resolution calling for a local ceasefire in conflict zones to allow the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Ceasefires have been used to vaccinate the most vulnerable communities in the past,” he said. “There is no reason why we cannot … We have seen in the past distribute polio vaccines to children in Afghanistan, just to set an example.”
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.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward, said: “Humanitarian organizations and UN agencies need the full support of the council to carry out the work we ask of them.”
Britain has drafted a Security Council resolution that the United Kingdom expects to be adopted in the coming weeks, she said.
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.
Indicating that Moscow was not interested in a new resolution. he said Russia is ready to discuss progress in implementing the only resolution the Security Council has adopted on the pandemic. After three months of difficult negotiations, the council on July 1 last endorsed the secretary-general’s request for a ceasefire in major global conflicts to confront COVID-19.
Britain’s Raab argued that the council needs to monitor and call for a ceasefire “specifically to allow COVID vaccines to be carried out in areas so severely affected by the conflict”.