Filenews 25 October 2021
The novel coronavirus pandemic will come to an end "when the world chooses to end it", as "all the tools" needed to combat it are available, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Antanom Gebresus, said on Sunday, renewing his call for a fairer distribution of vaccines.
"The pandemic will come to an end when the world chooses to end it, it's in our hands, we have all the tools we need," the WHO director-general insisted during a conference in Berlin.
But he lamented that so far "the world has not used these tools properly," underlining that with "almost 50,000 deaths a week" due to COVID-19 worldwide, "the pandemic is far from over."
The head of the WHO spoke during the opening ceremony of the "World Summit on Health", an annual event attended by professionals and politicians in Germany's capital.
The WHO had set a target of 40% of each country's population being vaccinated for COVID-19 by the end of the year and 70% by mid-2022. Dr Tedros often criticizes the monopolisation of vaccines by rich countries.
"The goal is achievable, but only if the countries and companies that control the supply translate their words into deeds," he said.
"Countries that have already reached the 40% target, including all G20 states, should give way to vaccine deliveries" to the international COVAX mechanism and the African Vaccine Market Fund (AVAT), established by the African Union, was the appeal of Dr Anna Yiannakis Tedros.
As for the pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccines for COVID-19, they must "share the know-how, the technology" and "give licenses" to expand the production of their formulations, proceeding "to renounce intellectual property rights", he added.
In a taped message to the summit, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, wrote, stressing that "the triumph of vaccines" – which were developed and marketed in record time – is "annihilated" by the tragedy of unequal distribution.
"Nationalism and the honing of vaccines put us all at risk," Antonio Guterres warned.
ANA-MPA
