LAHORE MIRROR (Monitoring Desk)– Leaders from developing nations warned the U.N. General Assembly this week that COVID-19 vaccine hoarding by wealthy countries left the door open for the emergence of new coronavirus variants even as infections already increase in many places.
The Philippines warned of a “man-made drought” of vaccines in poor countries, Peru said international solidarity had failed and Ghana lamented vaccine nationalism. The United Nations chief described the inequitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines as an “obscenity.”
“Rich countries hoard life-saving vaccines, while poor nations wait for trickles,” Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte told the high-level gathering on Tuesday.
“They now talk of booster shots, while developing countries consider half-doses just to get by. This is shocking beyond belief and must be condemned for what it is – a selfish act that can neither be justified rationally nor morally.”
About 35% of people who have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine were from high-income countries, and at least 28% were from Europe and North America, according to Reuters data from countries that report such figures.
Meanwhile, vaccination rates in some countries, including Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo, are less than 1%, a Reuters tracker shows.
The African continent bears the worst brunt of vaccine nationalism, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo told the gathering on Wednesday. About 900 million Africans are still in need of vaccines in order to reach the 70% threshold achieved in other parts of the world.
Colombian President Ivan Duque said COVID-19 vaccines must be equitably distributed to avoid the creation of new, more fearsome variants of the coronavirus.
