{"id":4320,"date":"2020-12-30T21:13:34","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T21:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=144894"},"modified":"2020-12-30T21:13:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T21:13:34","slug":"who-chief-says-we-must-ensure-that-all-people-at-risk-everywhere-not-just-in-countries-who-can-afford-vaccines-are-immunized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/30\/who-chief-says-we-must-ensure-that-all-people-at-risk-everywhere-not-just-in-countries-who-can-afford-vaccines-are-immunized\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO Chief Says ‘We Must Ensure That All People at Risk Everywhere\u2014Not Just in Countries Who Can Afford Vaccines\u2014Are Immunized’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One year after the international community first recognized the Covid-19 crisis\u2014which has grown into a deadly, devastating pandemic\u2014the head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday reiterated demands for ensuring equitable access to coronavirus vaccination amid ongoing vaccine development, testing, and deployment.<\/p>\n

“Going into 2021, we have a simple, yet profound, choice to make: Do we ignore the lessons of 2020 and allow insular, partisan approaches, conspiracy theories, and attacks on science to prevail, resulting in unnecessary suffering to people’s health and society at large?
\u2014 WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday evening, according to<\/a> the Johns Hopkins University global tracker, the world had recorded more than 82.5 million Covid-19 cases and over 1.8 million deaths. The United States continues to lead both tallies, and even before December is officially over, it has been nation’s deadliest<\/a> month on record during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

“The Covid-19 pandemic has taken so many lives and caused massive disruption to families, societies, and economies all over the world,” said<\/a> Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general. “But it also triggered the fastest and most wide-reaching response to a global health emergency in human history.”<\/p>\n

“Vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics have been developed and rolled out, at record speed, thanks to collaborations including the Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator,” he noted. “Equity is the essence of the ACT Accelerator, and its vaccine arm, COVAX, which has secured access to two billion doses of promising vaccine candidates.”<\/p>\n

“Vaccines offer great hope to turn the tide of the pandemic. But to protect the world, we must ensure that all people at risk everywhere\u2014not just in countries who can afford vaccines\u2014are immunized,” the WHO chief emphasized. “To do this, COVAX needs just over four billion US dollars urgently to buy vaccines for low- and lower-middle income countries. This is the challenge we must rise to in the new year.”<\/p>\n

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