Amid the spike in COVID-19 cases in the Philippines, vaccine czar Carlito Galvez issued a message to countries that allegedly hoard vaccines against the virus.
At the United Nations Economic and Social Council special ministerial meeting, Galvez said the hoarding of COVID-19 vaccines is doing no good, and it is even detrimental to global measures to eradicate the pandemic.
“Hoarding the limited vaccines does not serve anyone’s interests and only hurts everyone and the global response. Similar transgressions run contrary to solidarities reached multilaterally that emphasized the importance of collective action,” said Galvez.
Earlier, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the unfair distribution of the vaccine in countries is one of the reasons why COVID-19 cases are rising again.
He said that in rich countries, one in 4 people is vaccinated while in poor countries only one in 500 is vaccinated.
According to Galvez, the Philippines supports the policy to ensure fair and timely access to vaccines.
Galvez sends message to COVID-19 vaccine hoarders
“The Philippines remains resolute in championing a policy of ensuring universal, fair, equitable, and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines as long-term solutions to building back better, amid the emergence of new variants and the global scarcity that has been challenging vaccine rollouts in some countries,” he said.
Galvez called on the international community to intensify solidarity, and strengthen support for the COVAX facility.
“The Philippines calls on the international community to reinforce our greater global solidarities and uphold our collective commitment and to further intensify its cooperation to address COVID-19’s multidimensional challenges. Indeed, no one is safe unless everyone is safe,” said the vaccine czar.
In November 2020, the Global Justice Now analysis showed that rich governments already purchased more than 1 billion doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine. These nations represent only 14 percent of the global population.
“The U.S. has purchased 100 million doses with an option to buy 500 million, enough to potentially immunize its entire population against the coronavirus with hundreds of millions of doses left over. Since Monday, Pfizer has also sold 40 million doses to the U.K. and 200 million doses to the E.U., with an option to buy 100 million more,” Julia Conley reported in WallStreetWindow.