UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the ‘wildly unequal and unfair’ distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, saying that ten countries had administered 75% of all vaccinations and demanded a global effort to kill all people. vaccinate each country as soon as possible.
The UN chief said at a UN Security Council summit that 130 countries had not yet received a single vaccine, declaring that “at this critical moment, the vaccine is tantamount to the greatest moral test before the world community.”
Guterres has called for an urgent global vaccination plan to bring together those who have the power to ensure fair distribution of vaccines – scientists, vaccine manufacturers and those who can fund the effort.
The Secretary-General called on the world’s largest economic powers in the group of 20 to set up an emergency task force to draw up a plan and coordinate its implementation and financing. He said the task force should have the capacity to “mobilize pharmaceutical companies and key industry and logistics role players.”
Guterres said the meeting of the Group of Seven Major Industrialized Countries on Friday could create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources.
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British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whose country is chairing the Security Council this month, has called on the United Nations’ most powerful body to pass a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the conflict zone. 19 possible.
Thirteen ministers would address the meeting on improving access to COVID-19, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Britain says more than 160 million people are at risk of being excluded from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries engulfed by conflict and instability, including Yemen, Syria, southern Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
“Global vaccination coverage is essential to beat coronavirus,” Raab said before the meeting. “Therefore, the United Kingdom calls for a cessation of vaccination to allow COVID-19 vaccines to reach people living in conflict zones and for a greater global team effort to provide equitable access.”
Britain’s UN Ambassador, Barbara Woodward, said: “Humanitarian organizations and UN agencies need the full support of the Council to carry out the work we are asking them to do.”
Woodward said ceasefires were used to carry out vaccinations, marking a two-day break in fighting in Afghanistan in 2001 that enabled 35,000 health workers and volunteers to rescue 5.7 million children under the age of 5 from polio in te ent.
Britain has drafted a Security Council resolution saying Woodward hopes the UK hopes it will be adopted in the coming weeks.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Tuesday that during the council meeting, Mexico will emphasize the importance of equal access for all countries to COVID-19 vaccines.
He was critical of the fact that countries that produce the vaccine have high vaccination rates, while Latin American countries have difficulty getting any vaccines.
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The coronavirus infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million people. But many countries have not yet started vaccination programs, and even rich countries are facing shortages of vaccine doses as manufacturers struggle to increase production.
The World Health Organization’s COVAX program, an ambitious project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the poorest people in the world, already has its own goal of starting to miss coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries, at the same time that shots rolled out in rich countries.
Numerous developing countries have rushed in recent weeks to sign their own private deals to buy vaccines, without waiting for COVAX.
Woodward said Britain supports reserving 5% of the COVAX dose as a “last resort” buffer to ensure high-risk populations have access to COVID-19 vaccines.