Vaccine gap between rich and poor 鈥榓 moral outrage:鈥 WHO
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The World Health Organization on Monday blasted the growing gap between the number of coronavirus vaccines administered in rich and poor countries, branding the inequity a global 鈥渕oral outrage.鈥
The WHO tore into wealthy nations now vaccinating younger people at low risk of catching COVID-19, bluntly saying they were costing vulnerable people鈥檚 lives in low-income countries.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was 鈥渟hocking鈥 how little had been done to avert an entirely predictable 鈥渃atastrophic moral failure鈥 to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines.
The gap was 鈥済rowing every single day, and becoming more grotesque every day,鈥 he told a press conference.
鈥淐ountries that are now vaccinating younger, healthy people at low risk of disease are doing so at the cost of the lives of health workers, older people and other at-risk groups in other countries,鈥 Tedros said.
鈥淭he inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage.
鈥淚t鈥檚 also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.
鈥淪ome countries are racing to vaccinate their entire populations 鈥 while other countries have nothing.鈥
Tedros said rich countries were giving themselves a false sense of security.
The UN health agency chief said the more transmission of the virus, the more variants are likely to emerge 鈥 and the more of those that spring up, the more likely they are to evade vaccines.
More than 455 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been injected in 162 territories around the world.
About 56 percent of the doses have been administered in high-income countries, accounting for 16 percent of the global population.
Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to 9 percent of the global population.
The COVAX global vaccine-sharing scheme aimes to ensure that 92 of the poorest economies in the world can access vaccine doses, with the cost covered by donors.
The scheme is aiming to distribute enough doses to vaccinate up to 27 percent of the population in those 92 poorest economies by the end of the year.
It has so far distributed more than 31 million doses to 57 countries.
Tedros said countries were in a race against time to bring down transmission.
Wealthy nations needed to match their promises of solidarity with action.
鈥淯nless we end this pandemic as soon as possible, it can keep us hostage for more years to come,鈥 Tedros warned.
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