The head of the World Health Organization on Friday called on vaccine manufacturers to share technologies to help boost productivity significantly, warning that if jobs are not more accessible, progress against all diseases could -lose lost.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters that the number of Covid-19 vaccines dispensed had now surpassed the more than 100 million reported diseases worldwide.
While this was good news, he expressed concern that more than three-quarters of the vaccines were given in just 10 rich countries
“Some countries have already vaccinated large proportions of their population who are at lower risk of serious disease or death,” he said, without giving specific examples.
At the same time, “nearly 130 countries, with 2.5 billion people, have yet to give a single dose,” he said.
The WHO-sponsored Covax program, which aims to ensure fair access to the Covid jobs worldwide, is expected to begin in doses later this month.
But in the meantime, the uneven distribution of vaccines jeopardizes progress made against the pandemic, Tedros warned.
“If we don’t get rid of the virus everywhere, we could go back to square one,” he said.
He urged countries to “split doses once they have finished vaccinating health workers and the elderly”.
At the same time, he said, vaccine manufacturers had a responsibility to do more.
- Duty to do more –
It is needed, he said, for a “significant increase in output.”
It identified a number of steps that vaccine manufacturers could take to increase supply of their jobs, including “non-exclusive licenses to allow other manufacturers to make their vaccines” – something that has been previously done to expand access to treatments for HIV and hepatitis C..
Tedros criticized companies like Sanofi and Novartis that said last week they would use their infrastructures to help roll out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, and urged other companies to follow suit.
It also called for the voluntary sharing of data and technologies to help “immediately exploit undeveloped production capacity and help build additional manufacturing facilities, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America. . ”
“Expanding global production would make poor countries less dependent on donations from the rich,” he said.
The WHO chief said of vaccine manufacturers who have promised to sell their jobs at a cost, but said it was their duty to do more.
“Having received significant public funding, we encourage all manufacturers to share their data and technology to ensure that vaccines have global access. ”
In addition to allowing wider access to their technologies, Tedros urged vaccine manufacturers to share their data with WHO more quickly to help the DA health agency speed up the process. allowing emergency use to a safe and efficient job.