WHO-Director-Calls-For-More-Vaccine-Donations

WHO Director Said That There Was Nothing To Discuss During Recent Meeting Of An Advisory Group Established To Allocate Coronavirus Vaccines.

The head of the World Health Organization lamented the lack of COVID-19 vaccines being immediately donated by rich countries to the developing world, saying that the global community is failing and that the mistakes of the AIDS pandemic are being repeated.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Said Friday That There Was Nothing To Discuss During A Recent Meeting Of An Advisory Group Established To Allocate Coronavirus Vaccines.

“What do you share if there’s nothing to share?” he asked. “There are no vaccines to allocate.” Tedros said concerns being raised by some donors that African countries don’t have the infrastructure to deliver vaccines or that there are vaccine hesitancy problems, are inconsequential. “The problem is lack of vaccines. It’s not delivery, it’s not problems in absorption (of vaccines),” he said, criticizing rich countries who may be using that as a “pretext” not to donate vaccines. At the height of the AIDS crisis, life-saving antiretrovirals were not available in poor countries until about 10 years after they were being used in rich countries.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to Tedros, described the current situation in Africa as “dire,” noting that there had been a 50% increase in cases across the continent in the past five weeks. “Less than 2% of the population is vaccinated…(and) every one of our (vaccine) suppliers are unable to supply us because others are making demands on those products and other (countries) are vaccinating young populations that are not at risk.”

This news was originally published at News Observer.