WFEB: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar pens note on Health Day; WHO chief bats for 'vaccine equity'

On the occasion of World Health Day on April 7, the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB) hosted a mega global virtual conference with the theme Changing Paradigms in a Pandemic World: How to regain trust? While two million people from over 90 countries poised to attend the virtual event, the keynote speakers included World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, global humanitarian and WFEB & Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, leaders from Suriname, Slovenia, Belgium, Mauritius, the United Kingdom, Oman, Guyana and Norway. 

The entire event is being live-streamed. Here are the highlights of the opening and keynote panel discussion. The session was started with remarks by World Forum for Ethics in Business President Rajita Kulkarni Bagga followed by the founder of World Forum for Ethics in Business and Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. WFEB is a registered public interest foundation based in Belgium with its mandate including "all manners of pursuing and establishing the indispensable ethical foundations of business in a globalised world".

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s speech read by Nair at WFEB

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's message was read out by Prashanth Nair, the trustee of Art of Living Foundation as Gurudev had a soar throat. Relaying Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s remarks, Nair said, "this World Health Day is more significant than ever before" as the whole world's health is challenged like never before due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

"While humanity is grabbling with COVID-19, there is so much confusion about its origin and cure. People are asking this question, ‘How come a virus has rattled the world from nowhere?’ Health has no origin but the disease does. Health has no cause or reason but the disease does. Diseases occur when the laws of nature are violated. 2.8 million lives have been lost," Nair said while urging the world to unite and keeping aside the narrow ambitions for the sake of mankind.

He also noted that while COVID-19 vaccination is being rolled out across the world for prevention, "we also need to find a cure through Ayurveda, herbal and various other systems of medicines that are there on the panel". Apart from dealing with novel coronavirus outbreak in a holistic manner, Nair also said that people should aim for a world that is physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually "blossomed".

"Yoga, breathing techniques and meditation will help us end this. Let’s join together and come up with an action plan for realising the above. Despite the dark clouds of gloom, silver linings will emerge light enough to bring hope. Mankind has fought against and prevailed over such threats before and it will definitely do so this time as well," said Nair before congratulating millions of healthcare workers and frontline workers, scientists and other workers for "selfless service".

WHO chief Tedros at WFEB 

In his keynote address, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus started by thanking Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for inviting him. "It has been over 14 months since I declared COVID-19 a global health emergency," said Tedros before adding that the last year uncovered the "best and worst" of humanity. 

WHO chief noted, "We have seen acts of incredible courage from health workers and from communities around the world on the daily basis. We have seen incredible efforts by ethical businesses to help people to thrive. But, the pandemic has also worsened."

Tedros also acknowledged how some businesses have been taking ‘advantage’ of the grim situation at the expense of those in need. According to him, while the development of COVID-19 vaccines in record time has brought about a ‘new sense of hope’, it was already known that distribution will not be equitable. He said “vaccine equality is the challenge of our time.”

“We also know from experience that market forces alone would not actually be equitable distribution of these life-saving tools. Vaccine equity is the challenge of our time. Looking at the current stage of vaccination of more than 520 million doses administered so far, 85% have gone to high-income or upper-middle-income countries while the low-income countries have received only 0.1%,” he said.

The WHO chief said that inequality in vaccine distribution is not only a "moral outrage" but it is economically and epidemiologically "self-defeating". According to Tedros, vaccine inequality would also hamper economic recovery. Hence, the WHO chief said that it co-developed Covax along with its partners to distribute vaccines. He said, "this pandemic still has a long way to run" and noted the intense pressure on healthcare facilities across the world. 

"The decisions we all make as leaders and individuals can be a difference between life and death. Over the past year, we have been reminded of some fundamental trusses that life is fragile, health is precious and that we are one humanity. We may have different cultures, languages but we share the same DNA, the same planet and the same hopes and dreams," the WHO chief said before urging the world to learn its lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and businesses to acknowledge its impact and meets ethical standards. Tedros did not stay for the entire session and logged out as he had other commitments for World Health Day. 

Image credits: AP/PTI