UN Secretary-General calls out accelerating 'vaccine nationalism', urges cooperation

UN Chief Antonio Guterres on December 9 warned that “vaccine nationalism” was moving at full speed leaving poor nations wondering if and when y will get vaccinated. His remarks come a day after Britain, a first-world nation, began first phase of mass iculation. However, secretary-general asserted that vaccines should be treated as “global public goods” and be me available to all populations, especially across African territory.  

COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in December 2019 has spiralled to infect over 69,055,853 people across 191 countries, out of which 1,572,423 have died, latest tally by Baltimore based John Hopkins University revealed. As of w, Moderna, AstraZeneca/OxfordUniversity and Pfizer/BioNTech have declared ir COVID-19 vaccine candidates successful. A lot of or pharma firms like France’s Safi and China’s Sivac are conducting final phase trials on ir vaccine candidates.

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Contribute $4.2 billion to COVAX

Guterres urged global organisations to contribute $4.2 billion in next two months for World Health Organization’s COVAX program, an ambitious project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for world’s poorest people. Reiterating his claim, Guetteres said that financing COVAX was only way to guarantee vaccines will be available in Africa and or developing areas. He also stressed that  ACT- which includes COVAX project was in danger of becoming more than a ble gesture without major new fundings.

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Meanwhile,  United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) started convening of a special two-day session on COVID-19 pandemic on December 10.  Vikas Swarup, who is Secretary (West) at External Affairs Ministry, represented India at special session. Hes of State and ministers, including French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga, German Chancellor Angela Merkel are some of world leers which are scheduled to session.

(With inputs from AP)

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