UNITED NATIONS (AP) – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sharply criticized the “hugely unequal and unfair” distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday, saying 10 countries administered 75 percent of all vaccinations and a global demanding effort to get all people vaccinated into every country as soon as possible.
The UN chief told a high-level meeting of the UN Security Council that 130 countries have not received a single dose of vaccine, stating that “at this critical time, vaccine equality is the greatest moral test for the world community.”
Guterres called for an urgent global vaccination plan to bring together those who have the power to ensure a fair distribution of vaccines – scientists, vaccine makers and those who can fund the effort.
And he called on the major economic powers in the Group of 20 to establish an emergency task force to prepare a plan, coordinate its implementation and financing. He said the task force should have the capacity “to mobilize pharmaceutical companies and key industrial and logistics actors.”
Guterres said Friday’s meeting of the Group of Seven major industrialized countries – the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Canada and Italy – “could create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources.”
Thirteen ministers addressed Britain’s Virtual Council on improving access to COVID-19 vaccinations, including in conflict areas.
The coronavirus has infected more than 109 million people and killed at least 2.4 million of them. While manufacturers struggle to ramp up vaccine production, many countries are complaining about being excluded and even wealthy countries are facing shortages and domestic complaints.
The World Health Organization’s COVAX program, an ambitious project to purchase and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest people, has already missed its own goal of starting coronavirus vaccinations in poor countries at the same time that shots were rolled out in rich countries. WHO says COVAX needs $ 5 billion by 2021.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told City 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 has rejoined the WHO, and Blinken has announced that the United States will pay more than $ 200 million in previously assessed and current commitments to the UN agency, which will seek to reform Washington by the end of February.
America’s top diplomat said the US also plans to provide “significant financial support” to COVAX through the GAVI vaccine alliance, and that it will work to strengthen other multilateral initiatives involved in the global COVID-19 response. He did not give details.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticized the growing ‘immunity gap’ and called on the world to ‘come together to reject’ vaccination nationalism ‘, promote fair and equitable distribution of vaccines and make them particularly accessible and affordable for developing countries, including those in conflict. “
At the request of the WHO, he said, China will “provisionally” contribute 10 million doses of vaccines to COVAX.
China has donated vaccines to 53 developing countries, including Somalia, Iraq, South Sudan and Palestine, a UN observer state. It has also exported vaccines to 22 countries, he said, adding that Beijing has launched COVID-19 research and development cooperation with more than 10 countries.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar also called for an end to “vaccination nationalism” and the encouragement of internationalism. “Piling up excess doses will nullify our efforts to achieve collective health protection,” he cautioned.
Jaishankar said India was at the forefront of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, initially supplying medicines, breathing equipment and personal protective equipment and now sending vaccines made directly in India to 25 countries around the world, with 49 other countries of Europe. and Latin America to Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, scheduled to receive vaccines “in the coming days”.
Two vaccines, including one developed in India, have been issued an emergency permit, the minister said, and as many as 30 vaccine candidates are at various stages of development.
Jaishankar announced “a gift of 200,000 doses” of vaccine to about 90,000 UN peacekeepers serving in a dozen hotspots around the world.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, whose country is currently president of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, called for COVAX to be accelerated and an end to the “over-hoarding” and “monopolization of vaccines.”
He insisted that priority be given to countries with limited resources, saying, “It has been suggested that these countries will not have general access until mid-2023 if current trends continue.”
“What we see is a huge gap,” said Ebrard. “I don’t really think we’ve ever seen such a huge division affecting so many in such a short time. That’s why it’s important to reverse this. “
He urged the international community not to establish mechanisms that could prevent the rapid delivery of vaccines, but instead to strengthen supply chains “that promote and ensure universal access”.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, whose country this month holds the Presidency of the Security Council and chaired the virtual meeting, urged the UN’s most powerful body to pass a resolution calling for a local ceasefire. fires in conflict areas to enable the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. .
“Cease-fire has been used in the past to vaccinate the most vulnerable communities,” he said. “There is no reason why we shouldn’t … We have seen it in the past deliver polio vaccines to children in Afghanistan, just to name one example.”
Britain says more than 160 million people are at risk of exclusion from coronavirus vaccinations because they live in countries overrun by conflict and instability, including Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia.
British UN Ambassador, 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 UK hopes will be passed in the coming weeks, she said.
Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, objected to the council’s focus on fair access to vaccines, saying this went beyond its mandate to preserve international peace and security.
Which indicates 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 passed on the pandemic. After three months of difficult negotiations, on July 1 last year, the council endorsed the Secretary-General’s call for a ceasefire in major global conflicts to address COVID-19.
The British Raab argued that the council should follow up and call for a ceasefire “particularly to enable the implementation of COVID vaccines in those areas so badly affected by conflict”.