Governments and pharmaceutical companies need to work together in a better way to deliver vaccines “to every person, everywhere” — not simply in the wealthiest nations, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
Although the pandemic is not over, “it can be” he said. “Let’s end it together.”
Guterres was speaking on Friday, April 8, during the GAVI COVAX international vaccine equity initiative’s Advance Market Commitment Summit 2022, which saw world leaders commit $4.8 billion to help lower-income nations boost vaccination rates, and secure better access for new vaccine procurements.
The GAVI Vaccine Alliance hosted the summit alongside G7 president, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia (which holds the presidency of the G20 industrialized nations forum), and African Union chair, Senegal.
Raise your game
Guterres said in order to reach the billions who have so far not received vaccine shots, countries needed to fulfil and accelerate dose-sharing and donation commitments to COVAX, with better quality of supply.
“And it means having strong national vaccine-delivery systems at the ready — including efforts to counter disinformation and get vaccines into arms. I also call on countries to commit new funding for the ACT-Accelerator and COVAX this year.”
He said the summit was “a critical reminder that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. We’re seeing 1.5 million new cases each day. Large outbreaks are spreading in Asia”, he continued together with “a new wave sweeping across Europe.”
And some countries are reporting their highest death rates since the start of the pandemic.
He said the spread of Omicron — now surging in the form of the BA2 variant in many parts of the world — was “a startling reminder of how quickly COVID-19 can mutate and spread — especially in the absence of high vaccination coverage.”
A third of the planet is still lacking even one dose, and yet, some high-income countries are preparing for their second booster doses, the UN chief said.
We are far from our target of every country reaching 70 percent vaccination coverage by the middle of this year, he stressed, and with new variants emerging roughly every four months, “time is of the essence.”