UN Secretary General António Guterres called on Monday at the virtual World Economic Forum in Davos (Switzerland) to vaccinate everyone on the planet against COVID-19, failing which, according to him, the latter will not will not come out of the pandemic and its variants.
“The past two years have demonstrated a simple but stark truth: if we leave anyone behind, we leave everyone behind,” he said.
“If we fail to vaccinate every person, we give rise to new variants” of the virus causing COVID-19, “which spread across borders and brutally cripple daily life and economies”, added the head of the UN.
At the end of 2021, “the World Health Organization unveiled a strategy to vaccinate 40% of people in all countries by the end of last year and 70% by the middle of this year”, but “We are far from these objectives”, regretted António Guterres.
Equity and solidarity, now
“Vaccination rates in high-income countries are — shamefully — seven times higher than in African countries. We need vaccine equity now,” he said.
The UN Secretary General also urged the major powers to show greater economic solidarity with developing countries.
“Global solidarity is missing,” he denounced.
“If we fail to provide debt relief and financing to developing countries, we create an unbalanced recovery that can bring down an interconnected global economy,” he said. And “if we fail to reduce inequality, we are slowing economic progress for everyone in every country,” said the UN chief.