WHO chief warns poor could be ‘trampled' in vaccine push

‘But let me be clear. We simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalised are trampled by the rich and powerful in the stampede for vaccines,’ Tedros said

UNITED NATIONS

The head of the World Health Organization warned on Friday that the poor risk being “trampled” as wealthy nations roll out Covid-19 vaccines, which he said should be a public good.

Speaking at a virtual UN summit on the pandemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the world was seeing “light at the end of the tunnel” in the nearly year-long Covid crisis.

“But let me be clear. We simply cannot accept a world in which the poor and marginalized are trampled by the rich and powerful in the stampede for vaccines,” Tedros said.

“This is a global crisis and the solutions must be shared equitably as global public goods. Not as private commodities that widen inequalities and become yet another reason some people are let behind,” he said.

He also warned that the world has plenty of other challenges, saying: “There is no vaccine for poverty, no vaccine for hunger. There is no vaccine for inequality. There is no vaccine for climate change.”