WHO chief: World fails to ensure vaccine equity

Of the 832 million vaccine doses administered, 82 percent have gone to high or upper middle-income countries. In contrast, only 0.2 percent have been sent to their low-income peers, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said at a special ministerial meeting of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on Friday, Report informs, citing foreign media.

“Vaccine equity is the challenge of our time,” he said, “And we are failing.”

The WHO chief said some countries had received nothing, none had received enough - and some are not receiving second-round allocation on time. “The problem is not getting vaccines out of COVAX,” he assured. “The problem is getting them in.”

Today, he said that while COVAX has distributed 40 million doses to 100 countries, this is nowhere near enough. WHO had expected to distribute 100 million doses by now.

Tedros called on countries with enough vaccines to cover their populations “many times over” to make immediate donations to COVAX. More broadly, it is vital to explore every option for boosting production - including voluntary licenses, technology pools, and the waver of certain intellectual property provisions – and to invest in local vaccine manufacturing.

WHO will continue to provide technical assistance and add manufacturing bases across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.