WHO Chief term vaccine nationalism ‘morally indefensible’, calls for 40% vaccination by the end of 2021

Addressing all the nations, Dr Tedros said, “now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively,”

The Director of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros, addressed a media briefing on Wednesday where he condemned vaccine nationalism of rich nations and called the practice “morally indefensible & an ineffective public health strategy”. He touched upon several significant issues with respect to COVID-19 including new mutations, oxygen shortages and inequitable vaccine distribution.

The WHO Chief informed that more than 4 million people had died from COVID-19 across the world. He attributed vaccine inequality and fast-moving variants for the increase in cases of Coronavirus in many parts of the world. “This is leading to an acute shortage of oxygen, treatments and driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” he added.

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He condemned the practice of vaccine nationalism wherein the rich countries have taken over most of the global vaccine supply. Highlighting the fast-spreading mutations of the virus, Dr Tedros said that variants were winning against the vaccines due to vaccine inequality. He reiterated the WHO’s goal of vaccinating 10% of citizens of every country till September 2021 and getting 40% of the population in each country inoculated by the end of this year. He called on the G20 countries to help achieve this goal which would lead to a “truly global economic recovery”.

Addressing all the nations, Dr Tedros said, “now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively,”. He added this was the best strategy from a moral, epidemiological as well as economic standpoint.

The WHO chief also talked of the health body’s decision to recommend the use of a monoclonal antibody- IL-6 receptor blocker. “This treatment, along with corticosteroids, is recommended for patients with severe or critical disease(of COVID-19),” he informed.