With each passing day, inequalities in countries’ access to covid-19 vaccines are accentuated and become “grotes more”, said World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In evaluating for the press of the pandemic situation and the distribution of vaccines on the market, the official added that it is “shocking” that countries with more resources are doing “so little” to reverse this situation.
Without mentioning the countries, Tedros criticized those who “prefer to vaccinate young people and who do not fall into a risk category at the expense of allowing other countries to vaccinate their health workers and the elderly”.
Israel is the country that has vaccinated the most, with virtually all of the eligible population receiving the first dose of the vaccine and more than half of both doses.
The United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Chile, and United States are the countries that follow in the list of countries that have immunized most of their residents.
“Some countries are in the race to vaccinate their entire population, while others have nothing. This may give them certainty in the short term, but it is a false security impression, ”he warned.
He recalled that while the transmission of the coronavirus may continue in different parts of the planet, more variants will emerge that could potentially bypass vaccines.
However, not all countries have gone down the road of hoarding vaccines, if they could.
South Korea, a country with sufficient economic resources to enter into direct contracts with pharmaceutical companies, chose to be part of the COVAX platform, set up by WHO in collaboration with other organizations, for the equitable distribution of vaccines and to waiting for their turn.
Of the 450 million vaccines administered to date, COVAX has distributed only 30 million because it is not getting enough supplies.