WHO chief warns poor could be ‘trampled’ in vaccine push
‘But let me be clear. We simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalised are trampled by the rich and powerful in the stampede for vaccines,’ Tedros said
The head of the World Health Organization warned on Friday that the poor risk being “trampled” as wealthy nations roll out Covid-19 vaccines, which he said should be a public good.
Speaking at a virtual UN summit on the pandemic, WHO Director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world was seeing “light at the end of the tunnel” in the nearly year-long Covid crisis.
“But let me be clear. We simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalized are trampled by the rich and powerful in the stampede for vaccines,” Tedros said.
“This is a global crisis and the solutions must be shared equitably as global public goods. Not as private commodities that widen inequalities and become yet another reason some people are let behind,” he said.
He also warned that the world has plenty of other challenges, saying: “There is no vaccine for poverty, no vaccine for hunger. There is no vaccine for inequality. There is no vaccine for climate change.”
Britain has become the first Western nation to approve a vaccine for Covid-19, with the United States and other countries expected to follow soon and begin mass immunization drives.
A Un-backed COVAX consortium has been set up to provide vaccines equitably around the world.
The United States has been a notable holdout, with President Donald Trump atacking Tedros and moving to pull out of the World Health Organization, although President-elect Joe Biden plans to stay in the UN body.
Tedros, an Ethiopian doctor and diplomat, praised nations for providing free vaccines, tests and treatment for Covid-19 but questioned why similar efforts are not being devoted for earlier diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis or HIV/ AIDS — or for needs such as maternal health.
“The pandemic has only underlined why universal health coverage is so important,” he said.
Guterres on Thursday decried countries — without naming any — WHO rejected facts about the coronavirus pandemic and ignored guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Guterres addressed a special session of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on COVID-19, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and spread globally, so far infecting nearly 65 million people and killing nearly 1.5 million.
Dozens of world leaders have submited pre-recorded video statements for the two-day meeting.
“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.
U.S. President Donald Trump cut funding to the WHO earlier this year and announced plans to quit the Geneva-based body over accusations it was a puppet of China, which the WHO denied. The U.S. withdrawal would have taken effect in July next year, but U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has said he will rescind the move. “The pandemic underscores the importance of the World Health Organization, an institution that needs to be strengthened,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Long-simmering tensions between the United States and China hit boiling point over the pandemic at the United Nations, where months of bickering between the superpowers has spotlighted Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional global influence.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar did not name any countries in their General Assembly statements, but both made veiled references.
“The world is braced for a second wave of infection — what lies ahead is a tenuous and uphill batle,” said Wang. “Defeating the pandemic requires concerted efforts from all countries. The major ones in particular should play an exemplary role in promoting collaboration.”