Seth Berkley, Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said vaccines work against poverty and conflict by giving children the same life chances, when access is equitable. “This historic effort deserves historic support.” “We cannot allow the fight against this one deadly disease to lose ground in the fight against others,” she stressed. Calling for the Council’s help, she emphasized that a global ceasefire is needed for the duration of the vaccine delivery period. As such, COVAX has set aside vaccine stocks to reach those outside national vaccination programmes, including refugees, she reported. Aiming to procure 2 billion doses before the end of 2021, in addition to 2 billion doses of other vaccines, the strategies also consider conflict situations and aim to serve hard-to-reach groups, she said. Using existing vaccination infrastructure, efforts are focused on reaching groups in need, entailing steps to engage with and build trust in communities, and help Governments recruit health workers where they are most needed. COVID-19 has altered responses already compounded by conflict, and basic services must reach all, she said, citing examples of strategies by UNICEF and its partners for doing so. Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said the only way out of the pandemic is to ensure access to vaccines for everyone, including those living under conflict conditions.
The Group of Seven (G7) meeting later this week can create the momentum to mobilize the necessary financial resources, he added, declaring: “Together, we can ensure sufficient supply, fair distribution and vaccine confidence.” He said the task force would have the capacity to mobilize the pharmaceutical companies and key industry and logistics actors, expressing his readiness to galvanize the entire United Nations system in support of such an effort. Such a task force should include all countries with a capacity to develop vaccines or to produce them if licenses are available, as well as the World Health Organization (WHO), relevant technical organizations and international financial institutions. The Group of 20 (G20) is well placed to establish an emergency task force to prepare such a plan and coordinate its implementation and financing, he continued. Recalling the creation of the COVAX facility - the one global tool to procure and deliver vaccines to low- and middle-income countries - he stressed the urgent need for a global vaccination plan to bring together all those with the required power, scientific expertise and production, and financial capacities. “This can prolong the pandemic significantly, enabling the virus to come back to plague the global North.” “If the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the global South, it will mutate again and again,” he warned. Noting that progress on vaccinations has been wildly uneven and unfair, with just 10 countries having administered 75 per cent of all vaccines, he emphasized that more than 130 countries have not received a single dose. The Secretary-General pointed out that the coronavirus continues its merciless march across the world - upending lives, destroying economies and undermining the Sustainable Development Goals - while exacerbating all the factors that drive instability and hindering global efforts to implement Security Council resolution 2532 (2020) on conflict prevention and resolution. Today’s meeting was organized to discuss the role of the Security Council, Member States and the United Nations in ensuring that vaccines are made available equitably in places affected by conflict and insecurity. “At this critical moment, vaccine equity is the biggest moral test before the global community.” “The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is generating hope,” he told the 15-member Council’s videoconferencing meeting. Addressing the equitable distribution of vaccines against the coronavirus in the Security Council today, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres proposed the creation of an emergency task force by the G20 countries to prepare and help implement a global immunization plan.
0 kommentar(er)
