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People in Kampala are queuing to be vaccinated against Corona
Photo: Hajarah Nalwadda / dpa
Given the sluggish vaccination progress in poor countries, Oxfam and other aid agencies are calling for greater financial commitments from the super-rich in the fight against the pandemic.
Specifically, they propose a one-off property levy of 99 percent on profits made by billionaires during the pandemic.
According to this, this would bring in around 5.4 trillion dollars (equivalent to around 4.6 trillion euros) worldwide.
This "could finance Covid-19 vaccinations for everyone," Oxfam said.
Even after such a levy, the 2700 billionaires in the world would be even richer than before the pandemic, the organization said on Thursday.
She made the calculations together with the alliance Fight Inequality, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Initiative Patriotic Millionaires.
"Governments allow a handful of super-rich to accumulate obscene wealth while billions of people struggle for their livelihoods and have no access to the saving Covid-19 vaccination," said Oxfam development finance expert Tobias Hauschild.
"... but he prefers to spend his money on an exciting flight into space"
The wealth of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, for example, rose by 79.4 billion to 192.4 billion dollars during the pandemic, the association of non-governmental organizations calculated.
Bezos »could personally use his wealth to ensure that sufficient vaccine is available for everyone in the world.
But he prefers to spend his money on an exciting flight into space, ”said Hauschild, referring to the Amazon founder's latest space flight.
In Germany, too, more must be done so that the very wealthy make their fair contribution to overcoming the corona crisis, demanded Oxfam.
The wealth inequality in Germany is one of the highest in Europe.
aar / AFP