Roundup: The World Economic Forum focuses on the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide

GENEVA, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- The World Economic Forum is concerned about the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide

Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Qu

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, global vaccine production capacity and supply have improved significantly, but vaccine distribution inequalities have become more prominent. While some advanced economies are scaling up vaccinations on a large scale, vaccination rates on the Continent are at just 7%. The ongoing 2022 World Economic Forum video conference on the 18th called on all parties to enhance solidarity and trust, solve the problem of unequal distribution of vaccines around the world, and end the epidemic as soon as possible.

As of the 17th, the "COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan" led by the World Health Organization and its partners has provided more than 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 144 countries and regions. But as of 13 July, 36 of WHO's 194 Member States still have vaccination rates of less than 10 percent and 88 Member States have less than 40 percent.

Michael Ryan, executive director of who's health emergencies program, said in a speech at the World Economic Forum on the 18th that more than half of the world's population has been vaccinated with two doses, but the who Africa Regional Office provides only 7% of the vaccination rate data in the region. "Equal access to these vaccines is not only an important humanitarian goal for equity, but also the best way for all of us to get out of the COVID-19 pandemic."

Ryan said one of the scarce resources to deal with the pandemic is "trust," such as trust between communities and governments, trust between countries, and trust between manufacturers and purchasers of anti-epidemic materials. "Trust has always been the missing 'magic' [in the pandemic], but in our society, it's this 'magic' that keeps everything in life going smoothly." In addition, unequal distribution of vaccines exists not only between countries, but also within a country.

Seth Berkeley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, believes that in the context of a significant improvement in vaccine production capacity and supply compared to the early stage of the epidemic, the current challenge is to ensure that each country improves its ability to "absorb" vaccines, including strengthening vaccine transportation and storage capacity, training vaccinators, and eliminating people's concerns about vaccination. He also expressed concern about the mutation of the new crown virus, although the vaccine supply has improved, but if the virus continues to mutate, the global distribution inequality of vaccines is likely to escalate the "2.0 version".

Gabriela Buch, executive director of Oxfam International, blamed the unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on the misjudgment of the epidemic by leaders of rich countries and criticized "vaccine nationalism". Buch said rich countries prioritize vaccines to their own countries and protect pharmaceutical companies' monopolies on vaccines. While WHO has promoted the establishment of a number of centres for technology transfer of COVID-19 vaccines, most pharmaceutical companies are not currently inclined to participate.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a regular WHO press conference on the 6th of this month that at the current rate of vaccine roll-out, there are still 109 countries and territories that will not be able to fully vaccinate 70% of their population by July, a goal that WHO has been calling on all countries to achieve. Tedros said at least 11 billion doses of vaccine will be needed to achieve the global COVID-19 vaccination strategy, but the problem is not vaccine supply, but vaccine distribution. Global vaccine production is currently approaching 1.5 billion doses per month, and there is enough supply to achieve this goal as long as it is distributed equitably.

Editor: Meng Jie

Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan Zhang Wu Text Editor: Fang Ying

Source: Author: Xinhua News Agency