COVID-19 vaccine crisis denotes "appalling inequality that perpetuates the pandemic", warns WHO chief

Seventeen months into the biggest health crisis in generations, the global situation remains dangerous. Despite advances in knowledge about the coronavirus, the development of several vaccines, the efforts of governments and communities, and the hard work of health workers, there have been more cases and deaths from COVID-19 so far this year than in all of 2020, the director-general of the World Health Organization stressed on Monday.

In his opening address to the virtual World Health Assembly, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the current trend indicates that last year's total number of deaths will be exceeded in the next three weeks.

Tedros described the current global situation as "tragic", noting that while there has been a decline in the number of infections and deaths for three consecutive weeks, "the global situation remains fragile".
 

"No country should take for granted that it has overcome the crisis regardless of its vaccination rate," he warned, arguing that while no vaccine-, treatment- or diagnostic-resistant variants of the virus have emerged so far, there is no certainty that this will always be the case.

"This virus is constantly changing and the changes to come could make our tools to fight it inefficient and put us back to square one," he stressed. In this context, he stressed the importance of accelerating vaccination of the entire population to reduce the chances of the coronavirus evolving and lamented the inequity of access to vaccines that condemns people living in poor or lower middle-income countries.

He noted that a small group of countries that manufacture and purchase the majority of the world's vaccines control the fate of the rest of humanity, adding that nations that are currently immunising low-risk groups do so at the expense of health workers and high-risk groups in other countries.

"The COVID-19 vaccine crisis denotes a shocking inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic," he said, urging member states to support an "additional effort between now and September" to vaccinate at least 10% of the population in all countries by that time, and to accelerate the pace to achieve the goal of vaccinating at least 30% of people by the end of the year.

"The pandemic will not end unless transmission is controlled in all countries," he insisted.

Tedros referred to the International Monetary Fund's even more ambitious proposal to immunise 40 per cent of the world's population by the end of 2021 and 60 per cent by mid-2022.

Speaking about the COVAX mechanism, which seeks equitable access to vaccines, he said the number of doses available remains "grossly inadequate".

He said that, to date, the COVAX initiative has delivered 70 million doses to 124 countries and economies, a figure that reaches less than 0.5% of the combined population of those nations. In this regard, he listed three urgent needs: funding COVAX, sharing vaccine doses, and expanding the manufacture of immunisations.

The WHO chief said all countries can do more in surveillance, testing, sequencing and information sharing; empowering individuals and communities; supporting businesses and workplaces; and implementing national immunisation strategies.

He added that you cannot build a safer world from the top down, but must start from the ground up: "Preparing for, preventing, detecting and responding rapidly to epidemics does not start in the corridors of power, it starts in the streets of deprivation and overcrowding where people live without sufficient food, access to health workers, clean water and electricity," he explained.

The director general dedicated part of his speech to health workers around the world, paying special tribute to their sustained efforts to protect people from COVID-19. Tedros lauded the commitment and sacrifice of these professionals and condemned the unacceptable attacks many of them have suffered.

"Health workers do heroic things, but they are not superheroes. They are human like all of us. They sweat and curse, laugh and cry, fear and hope. Many are frustrated and helpless because they lack personal protective equipment and vaccines, as well as life-saving tools," he said.

"Many have been infected and, although information is scarce, we estimate that at least 115,000 health and care workers have paid the ultimate price in the service of others," he deplored and called for protecting them with the necessary supplies and fair treatment.

The UN Secretary-General joined in the tribute to frontline health workers, calling them "the heroes of this pandemic".

"Millions of health professionals continue to put themselves in harm's way every day. We owe them our deepest thanks. This includes our colleagues at the World Health Organization, who work around the world to help Member States save lives and protect the vulnerable," António Guterres said in a video message.

The UN leader cited the 3.4 million lives that have succumbed to HIV/AIDS-19 as a "tsunami of suffering" that has also led to the loss of some 500 million jobs and cost countries billions of dollars in national coffers.

Guterres again spoke with great concern about the danger of a "two-speed" global response to the pandemic, meaning mass vaccination and opening up of the economies of rich countries, and the persistence, circulation and mutation of the virus in poorer nations.

"The most vulnerable are suffering the most, and I fear this is far from over," he said, warning of more spikes and surges that could claim hundreds of thousands of lives and slow global economic recovery.

COVID-19 cannot be beaten one country at a time," he added, reinforcing the WHO Director-General's message.
He called once again for coordinated global action to put the world on the path to recovery and development.

Guterres specified that such action must be resolute and united to stop the virus with a plan for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, stressing the importance of funding COVAX.

"We need the logic and urgency of a war economy to boost our weapons capacity," he said, referring to his request to the G20 to create a working group to negotiate with pharmaceuticals and other key parties with the intention of doubling manufacturing capacity "exploring all options, from voluntary licensing and technology transfers to patent pooling and flexibility in intellectual property rights".

Another element of the overall action required is to strengthen primary health care systems and universal health coverage. Currently, at least half of the world's population lacks access to essential health services. He considered that COVID-19 cannot be seen in isolation from the fundamental problems of health systems where inequity, underfunding, complacency and neglect prevail.

"With the right primary health care systems in place, we will recover more quickly from this pandemic and prevent the next one before it takes hold," he said.

The third action point is preparing for the next global health emergency.

"Strong primary health systems are a start, but they are not enough. The world needs political commitment at the highest level to transform the existing system through an internationally coordinated whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach. WHO must be at the centre of global pandemic preparedness. It needs sustainable and predictable resources, and it must be fully capable of doing the job required of it," he said.

Guterres concluded his message by urging world leaders "to take the bold decisions needed to end the pandemic and to build safe and healthy communities and societies for the future".