“The virus is spreading worldwide faster than vaccine distribution! 10,000 patients die every day,” says World Health Organization (WHO) President Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaking to reporters at a meeting of the G7, the world’s seven richest nations, in London.
The G7 group has decided to provide 1 billion vaccines against the corona epidemic to the world’s least developed countries through the COVAX project. In the meantime, the G7 Group is proposing to expedite vaccination trials, expedite PCR testing within 100 days, search for drugs and treatments, establish international agencies to monitor epidemiological conditions, and increase the powers of the World Health Organization to take action.
WHO has said that 70% of the world’s population needs to be vaccinated before next year’s G7 summit in Germany, which requires 11 billion vaccines.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark has said that the world’s richest nations have set aside 4.3 billion vaccines, but another 2 billion are needed to vaccinate their entire populations.
Regarding these decisions, the Organization of Physicians Without Borders (MSF) says that G7 leaders have failed to learn a lesson from the corona epidemic by not giving them time to produce vaccines. Also Oxfarm and Human Right Watch (HRW) have repeatedly emphasized the need to remove patent rights obtained for vaccines. They say, this dangerous trade position of the world’s richest nations, under the guise of protecting intellectual property, cannot be stopped by giving developing countries a free dose of vaccine.
The WHO warns that another US$ 16 billion will be needed this year alone for masks, PCR kits, oxygen, health care equipment and medicines. “US$ 16 billion equals only about 1% of the world’s defense spending on weapons and missiles. If we can use this 1%, we will be able to save a large number of lives and end the corona epidemic,” said Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO’s Epidemiology Unit.
