SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Health workers wearing protective suits bring a Covid-19 patient to a temporary shelter at a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia on June 24, 2021. (Photo: Agung Kuncahya B./Xinhua via Getty Images)
'It Didn't Have to Be This Way': WHO Chief Laments 4 Million Covid-19 Deaths
"Everyone deserves protection from Covid-19," said the People's Vaccine Alliance, "not just the richest."
Jul 08, 2021
The official global death toll from Covid-19 hit 4 million Wednesday--a "tragic milestone," said the World Health Organization chief as he blasted "vaccine nationalism" as a "morally indefensible" position.
That number of fatalities is likely an underestimate, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his remarks at a press briefing. Also troubling, he said, are "fast moving variants" of the coronavirus and premature dropping by some authorities of public health measures meant to contain the spread of the pandemic.
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible."
--Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible," said Tedros, as well as "an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly and becoming increasingly effective at moving from human-to-human."
"Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which also threatens the global economic recovery," Tedros said.
"It didn't have to be this way," he added, "and it doesn't have to be this way going forward."
Over 3.2 billion doses have been administered worldwide, but their distribution has been starkly unequal. Just 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to tracking by Our World in Data.
Tedros has repeatedly criticized unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines, declaring in May for example: "The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic."
Backing up that assessment is the emergence of coronavirus variants including the highly contagious Delta variant, which is being blamed for a surge in Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Sanjeev Kafely, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Bangladesh delegation, said Tuesday that "mass vaccination is the key to ending the spiraling deaths, infections, and hardships caused by this virus in Bangladesh and everywhere around the world."
Unequal access to doses is an obstacle to such mass vaccination, an inequity that's been the focus of the People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over 50 organizations like Global Justice Now, Amnesty International, and Oxfam.
The groups accuse rich nations like the U.S. of "hoarding" Covid-19 vaccines while a small number of pharmaceutical companies control production and distribution of doses and thereby "get to decide who lives and who dies- despite the fact that they created many of these vaccines with public money."
"Everyone deserves protection from Covid-19, not just the richest," the coalition said Thursday.
Like WHO's Tedros, the alliance said the world needn't have arrived at the 4 million death toll figure and warned further needless deaths will come to pass, barring a huge boost in vaccine production.
Lamenting the "horrific milestone," Anna Marriott, Oxfam's health policy manager and spokesperson for the People's Vaccine Alliance, said Wednesday, "Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the successful vaccine science been shared and production of doses ramped up by more manufacturers across the world."
"Pharmaceutical corporations are making eye watering profits," she said, "but are refusing to share the vaccine science and know-how."
Marriott singled out the U.K. and Germany--which are now grabbing up supplies of booster shots for their citizens before many nations have secured even first doses--and demanded they back a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property protections on Covid-19 related technology. The Biden administration has backed a patent waiver for vaccines and is facing calls to pressure the EU to support the proposal as well.
A suspension of those trade rules, Marriott said, "would allow developing countries to make their own vaccines so that everyone, no matter where they live, can share the hope of a future free from Covid."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
The official global death toll from Covid-19 hit 4 million Wednesday--a "tragic milestone," said the World Health Organization chief as he blasted "vaccine nationalism" as a "morally indefensible" position.
That number of fatalities is likely an underestimate, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his remarks at a press briefing. Also troubling, he said, are "fast moving variants" of the coronavirus and premature dropping by some authorities of public health measures meant to contain the spread of the pandemic.
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible."
--Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible," said Tedros, as well as "an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly and becoming increasingly effective at moving from human-to-human."
"Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which also threatens the global economic recovery," Tedros said.
"It didn't have to be this way," he added, "and it doesn't have to be this way going forward."
Over 3.2 billion doses have been administered worldwide, but their distribution has been starkly unequal. Just 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to tracking by Our World in Data.
Tedros has repeatedly criticized unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines, declaring in May for example: "The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic."
Backing up that assessment is the emergence of coronavirus variants including the highly contagious Delta variant, which is being blamed for a surge in Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Sanjeev Kafely, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Bangladesh delegation, said Tuesday that "mass vaccination is the key to ending the spiraling deaths, infections, and hardships caused by this virus in Bangladesh and everywhere around the world."
Unequal access to doses is an obstacle to such mass vaccination, an inequity that's been the focus of the People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over 50 organizations like Global Justice Now, Amnesty International, and Oxfam.
The groups accuse rich nations like the U.S. of "hoarding" Covid-19 vaccines while a small number of pharmaceutical companies control production and distribution of doses and thereby "get to decide who lives and who dies- despite the fact that they created many of these vaccines with public money."
"Everyone deserves protection from Covid-19, not just the richest," the coalition said Thursday.
Like WHO's Tedros, the alliance said the world needn't have arrived at the 4 million death toll figure and warned further needless deaths will come to pass, barring a huge boost in vaccine production.
Lamenting the "horrific milestone," Anna Marriott, Oxfam's health policy manager and spokesperson for the People's Vaccine Alliance, said Wednesday, "Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the successful vaccine science been shared and production of doses ramped up by more manufacturers across the world."
"Pharmaceutical corporations are making eye watering profits," she said, "but are refusing to share the vaccine science and know-how."
Marriott singled out the U.K. and Germany--which are now grabbing up supplies of booster shots for their citizens before many nations have secured even first doses--and demanded they back a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property protections on Covid-19 related technology. The Biden administration has backed a patent waiver for vaccines and is facing calls to pressure the EU to support the proposal as well.
A suspension of those trade rules, Marriott said, "would allow developing countries to make their own vaccines so that everyone, no matter where they live, can share the hope of a future free from Covid."
The official global death toll from Covid-19 hit 4 million Wednesday--a "tragic milestone," said the World Health Organization chief as he blasted "vaccine nationalism" as a "morally indefensible" position.
That number of fatalities is likely an underestimate, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his remarks at a press briefing. Also troubling, he said, are "fast moving variants" of the coronavirus and premature dropping by some authorities of public health measures meant to contain the spread of the pandemic.
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible."
--Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
"Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion's share, is morally indefensible," said Tedros, as well as "an ineffective public health strategy against a respiratory virus that is mutating quickly and becoming increasingly effective at moving from human-to-human."
"Variants are currently winning the race against vaccines because of inequitable vaccine production and distribution, which also threatens the global economic recovery," Tedros said.
"It didn't have to be this way," he added, "and it doesn't have to be this way going forward."
Over 3.2 billion doses have been administered worldwide, but their distribution has been starkly unequal. Just 1% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, according to tracking by Our World in Data.
Tedros has repeatedly criticized unequal access to Covid-19 vaccines, declaring in May for example: "The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic."
Backing up that assessment is the emergence of coronavirus variants including the highly contagious Delta variant, which is being blamed for a surge in Covid-19 cases in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Sanjeev Kafely, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' Bangladesh delegation, said Tuesday that "mass vaccination is the key to ending the spiraling deaths, infections, and hardships caused by this virus in Bangladesh and everywhere around the world."
Unequal access to doses is an obstacle to such mass vaccination, an inequity that's been the focus of the People's Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over 50 organizations like Global Justice Now, Amnesty International, and Oxfam.
The groups accuse rich nations like the U.S. of "hoarding" Covid-19 vaccines while a small number of pharmaceutical companies control production and distribution of doses and thereby "get to decide who lives and who dies- despite the fact that they created many of these vaccines with public money."
"Everyone deserves protection from Covid-19, not just the richest," the coalition said Thursday.
Like WHO's Tedros, the alliance said the world needn't have arrived at the 4 million death toll figure and warned further needless deaths will come to pass, barring a huge boost in vaccine production.
Lamenting the "horrific milestone," Anna Marriott, Oxfam's health policy manager and spokesperson for the People's Vaccine Alliance, said Wednesday, "Many of these deaths could have been prevented had the successful vaccine science been shared and production of doses ramped up by more manufacturers across the world."
"Pharmaceutical corporations are making eye watering profits," she said, "but are refusing to share the vaccine science and know-how."
Marriott singled out the U.K. and Germany--which are now grabbing up supplies of booster shots for their citizens before many nations have secured even first doses--and demanded they back a proposal at the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive intellectual property protections on Covid-19 related technology. The Biden administration has backed a patent waiver for vaccines and is facing calls to pressure the EU to support the proposal as well.
A suspension of those trade rules, Marriott said, "would allow developing countries to make their own vaccines so that everyone, no matter where they live, can share the hope of a future free from Covid."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.