By Asmau Ahmad
United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres said that life-saving COVID-19 vaccines should be viewed as “global public goods” and a way to defect from the pandemic.
Guterres told reporters at the G7 summit of major industrialized countries in Cornwall, UK, via video link.
The UN chief said there was no other way to defeat a virus “which is spreading” in developing countries “like wildfire” and “is in danger of mutating” other than through fair mass vaccination.
He said photos should be available and affordable to everyone, “it’s not just about fairness and fairness but it’s also about efficiency.
“It’s a matter of efficiency that mutations follow Darwin’s laws of evolution, which means that the worst viruses tend to survive, multiply and ultimately inactivate vaccines.”
“So far, immunization programs have been uneven and very unfair,” the senior UN official said.
Guterres said he was encouraged by the announcement made before the G7, by the International Monetary Fund in collaboration with the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Trade Organization.
He said he was encouraged by a $ 50 billion program to support immunization in developing countries.
The UN chief has also been encouraged by recent announcements by the US and UK to donate more than half a billion doses to countries least able to afford them.
Guterres praised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s announcement that he expected the G7 to deliver a billion promised doses by the end of the summit.
“We are at war” against the coronavirus, he said, which continues to cause “enormous suffering” and destroy the world economy.
To defeat the virus, we must “strengthen our weapons”, he added, calling for a “global vaccination plan”.
The Secretary General discussed his proposal to bring together vaccine producing countries in an emergency working group supported by WHO, the GAVI vaccine alliance and international financial institutions to define and implement a plan.
“We really need those who have the power to organize an effective response to COVID and the only way to be effective is to ensure that everyone is vaccinated as soon as possible,” he said.
The UN chief said climate action was his other priority for the first face-to-face meeting of the G7 since the start of the pandemic.
The Secretary General therefore expressed his hope that the G7 meeting would help pave the way for further important decisions in the future.
“I think it is absolutely essential to ensure this through COP 26 (United Nations climate conference) in Glasgow,” he said, warning that this could turn out to be “the last opportunity” to make the right decisions.
