To reduce scandalous disparity,WHO sets new vaccination targets for the world’s poorest people

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan said on Monday  said that the COVID-19 pandemic is being fueled by ‘scandalous inequity’ in vaccine distribution, as he established new goals for protecting people in the world’s poorest countries.

No country, no matter its vaccination rate, should consider it is out of the woods as long as the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants proliferate elsewhere, according to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Tedros said ‘the world remains in a very dangerous situation,’ at the opening of the annual meeting of the 194 member states’ health ministers.

He claimed that only ten countries had administered more than 75% of all vaccinations.

Since February, the COVAX facility, administered by WHO and the GAVI vaccination alliance, has provided 72 million vaccine doses to 125 nations and economies, only enough for 1% of their populations, according to Tedros.

He asked countries to donate vaccine doses to COVAX so that 10% of the world’s population may be immunized by September and 30% by the end of the year. According to him, this meant vaccination 250 million extra individuals in just four months.

Tedros also demanded that vaccine makers provide COVAX first refusal on new vaccination volumes or commit 50% of their vaccine quantities to COVAX this year.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has urged for the WHO to be given the authority to visit countries quickly in the event of outbreaks having the potential to spread a pandemic, as well as to access data.

In separate pre-recorded statements to the assembly, Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for increased funding for the UN agency and backed the notion of a new worldwide treaty to combat pandemics.