The World Health Organization (WHO) head on Monday slammed rich countries for hogging COVID-19 vaccines and hindering the pathway for poorer nations to get the vaccine shots, reported Al Jazeera.
The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out that wealthy nations have procured several billion vaccine doses and some countries have ordered enough shots to vaccinate their populations more than once, while some developing and under-developed countries have little or none. He did not name those countries or give other details.
He said the money was available to buy vaccine doses for some of the poorest countries, following fresh contributions from the United States, the European Union, and Germany, but it was worthless if there was nothing to buy.
Tedros appealed to wealthy nations to check whether their own deals with pharmaceutical companies were undermining Covax, which poorer countries are relying on to get their first doses.
“Even if you have the money, if you cannot use the money to buy vaccines, having the money doesn’t mean anything,” the WHO chief said during a virtual press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Last week, leaders of the Group of Seven industrial powers said they would boost global vaccine development and deployment and support “affordable and equitable access to vaccines” and treatments for COVID-19. They cited a collective $7.5bn from the G7 to UN-backed efforts.
The WHO chief thanked the G7 countries for their significant pledges.
The first batched of Covax vaccines is set to be shipped out between late February and the end of June. Some 145 participating economies are set to receive 337.2 million doses, enough to vaccinate a little over three percent of their combined populations.
The UN-backed Covax initiative has said it hopes to raise the figure to up to 27 percent in lower-income countries by the end of December.
