Tedros calls for actions to improve inoculation access
Growing vaccine gap ‘grotesque’
The World Health Organization on Monday blasted the growing gap between the number of coronavirus vaccines administered in rich and poor countries, branding the inequity a global "moral outrage."
The gap was "growing every single day, and becoming more grotesque every day," he told a press conference.
"Countries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries," Tedros said.
"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It's also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating. Some countries are racing to vaccinate their entire populations - while other countries have nothing."
Tedros said rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security.
The UN health agency chief said the more transmission of the virus, the more variants are likely to emerge - and the more of those that spring up, the more likely they are to evade vaccines.
More than 455 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been injected in 162 territories around the world, according to an AFP count. Some 56 percent of the doses have been administered in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population.
Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to 9 percent of the global population.
The COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme ensures that 92 of the poorest economies in the world can access vaccine doses, with the cost covered by donors. It has so far distributed more than 31 million doses to 57 countries. The scheme is aiming to distribute enough doses to vaccinate up to 27 percent of the population in those 92 economies by the end of 2021.
Tedros said countries were in a race against time to bring down transmission and wealthy nations needed to match their promises of solidarity with action.
"Unless we end this pandemic as soon as possible, it can keep us hostage for more years to come," he warned.
Asked about the rising number of cases in Europe, where some states are reimposing tighter restrictions, fearing a third wave of the pandemic, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said countries had missed an open goal.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivering remarks following the speech of US President's chief medical adviser during a World Health Organization (WHO) executive board meeting on January 21, 2021 in Geneva. Photo: VCG
The WHO tore into wealthy nations now vaccinating younger people at low risk of developing COVID-19 disease, bluntly saying they were costing vulnerable people's lives in low-income countries. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was "shocking" how little had been done to avert an entirely predictable "catastrophic moral failure" to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines worldwide.The gap was "growing every single day, and becoming more grotesque every day," he told a press conference.
"Countries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries," Tedros said.
"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage. It's also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating. Some countries are racing to vaccinate their entire populations - while other countries have nothing."
Tedros said rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security.
The UN health agency chief said the more transmission of the virus, the more variants are likely to emerge - and the more of those that spring up, the more likely they are to evade vaccines.
More than 455 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been injected in 162 territories around the world, according to an AFP count. Some 56 percent of the doses have been administered in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population.
Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to 9 percent of the global population.
The COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme ensures that 92 of the poorest economies in the world can access vaccine doses, with the cost covered by donors. It has so far distributed more than 31 million doses to 57 countries. The scheme is aiming to distribute enough doses to vaccinate up to 27 percent of the population in those 92 economies by the end of 2021.
Tedros said countries were in a race against time to bring down transmission and wealthy nations needed to match their promises of solidarity with action.
"Unless we end this pandemic as soon as possible, it can keep us hostage for more years to come," he warned.
Asked about the rising number of cases in Europe, where some states are reimposing tighter restrictions, fearing a third wave of the pandemic, WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said countries had missed an open goal.
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