Azerbaijani MPs accuse COVAX for discriminatory, biased and unfair approach

"The step taken by COVAX against Azerbaijan is surprising and unfortunate since Azerbaijan is one of the leading and exemplary countries in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, which is a universal scourge.

Political scientist Elman Nasirov, a member of the Parliamentary Committee on International Relations and Interparliamentary Relations, told Report.

He said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has repeatedly praised Azerbaijan's activities in this direction, and it is no coincidence: "Azerbaijan has provided financial support to the WHO, as well as more than 30 Non-Aligned Movement member states. made. The goal is to help those countries fight the pandemic. Therefore, it is unacceptable that Azerbaijan is not included in 18 countries that will receive Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines under the COVAX platform. However, last year our country transferred $ 21 million to the company's account. They justify this step by saying that Azerbaijan has started vaccination until January 29. The vaccine is allegedly sent to countries that have begun vaccination after January 29. It is an entirely absurd approach. Because Azerbaijan fully fulfills its obligations under the WHO, as well as all technical instructions.

President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly stressed that the principle of justice must be protected in the vaccination process. The fact that the Azerbaijani state and leader stand by the truth and ask international organizations to ensure justice seems to irritate some people. Because they are not accustomed to acting on the principle of justice but prefer to dictate, work and think in their interests, not to cooperate. Thus, we see dual approaches.

Of course, Azerbaijan is always operative. Contracts have been signed with many companies. Such behavior of COVAX will first and foremost damage the company's image and damage its reputation in the international community. Moreover, we are witnessing the discriminatory policy of the COVAX platform the biased and unfair behavior in such a difficult time. "

MP Hikmat Babaoghlu said that some unfortunate processes had taken place since the first days of the pandemic: "First of all, we have witnessed the illegal confiscation of protective masks and other equipment by some countries. Transit countries have set a bad example in Europe by adopting such means in cargo transportation. There are severe problems with the timely delivery of drugs licensed by the WHO to the customer.

He stressed that such cases occur in the example of individual countries: "European countries prefer some vaccines and say that others are not valid in their territory. One of them is the problem of delivering the vaccine to the countries that are already members of the COVAX platform. Azerbaijan sounded the alarm about possible problems at the time, and today we face those difficulties. First of all, the WHO, which developed various protocols and practices in the fight against the pandemic and sent them to countries, should urge individual vaccine producers to be responsible for this matter and ensure that the vaccine is accessible to all and distributed fairly.

Currently, only the CoronoVAC vaccine is used in Azerbaijan. Since January 18, 502,174 people have been vaccinated in the country. Vaccination is performed voluntarily and at state expense.