The rich must not '
trample
' the poor in the race for the vaccine against the Covid-19, said Friday the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a UN summit on the pandemic.
Read also: Covid-19: vaccine from next week in the United Kingdom, France pending its strategy
"
With the positive results of vaccine trials in recent weeks, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting more and more intense,
" he said on the second day of this partly virtual meeting.
"
We are beginning to see the end of the pandemic
" which has already infected more than 65 million people, of which more than 1.5 million have died, he added.
"No one should be left behind"
“
But let's be clear: we simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalized are trampled by the rich and powerful in the rush for vaccines,
” insisted the Ethiopian.
"
It is a global crisis and the solutions must be shared as global public goods, not as private property which widens inequalities
", he continued, before insisting: "
No one should be left behind.
".
The head of the WHO insisted on the importance of universal health coverage, highlighted according to him by the current crisis which has pushed many countries to support, with public funds, the cost of tests, treatments and of the future vaccine.
“
They recognized that the ability to pay should not be the determining factor between illness and health, between life and death.
Shouldn't this also be the case for cancer, heart disease, HIV, tuberculosis or malaria?
He asked.
Like United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres the day before, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has finally warned against the idea that the vaccine would solve all problems.
“
It's not going to erase the vulnerabilities that are at the root of the pandemic.
There is no vaccine against poverty, no vaccine against hunger.
There is no vaccine against inequalities, there is no vaccine against climate change,
”he warned.
“
When the pandemic is over, we will find ourselves facing even greater challenges than before it began.
"
