He called for a “global vaccine taskforce” to manage distribution of the Covid-19 jab
The UN Secretary General has criticised the worldwide distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, as 130 nations are yet to receive a single dose.
António Guterres referred to the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines as “wildly uneven and unfair”. He called for a more even distribution of the coronavirus jab managed by a “global vaccine taskforce”.
This taskforce would comprise the G20, the 20 most-developed economies on Earth.
In a meeting between the UN security council held on Wednesday, Guterres laid bare the need for a global vaccination policy.
He said: “At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community.”
Guterres also said nations comprising the G20 should work “to mobilise the pharmaceutical companies and key industry and logistics actors” in order to make a global vaccination plan a reality.
In order to help distribute the Covid-19 vaccine to less-developed nations, Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab called on the UN to step in.
He said the UN should call for ceasefires in areas badly affected by conflict, so vaccine distribution can take hold.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said the Biden administration would “work with partners across the globe to expand manufacturing and distribution capacity and to increase access, including to marginalised populations”.
Not all G20 members were in agreement, however.
Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Ambassador to the UN, said calling for a global vaccine taskforce went beyond the remit of the UN, which is purely to provide peace and security on the international stage.
Guterres reserved special mention for the Group of Seven, the most developed economies on Earth – the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, France, Canada and Italy.
These nations “can create the momentum to mobilise the necessary financial resources”, Guterres said.
Worldwide, there have been over 110 million cases of coronavirus. 2.43 million people have lost their lives as a result.
