Dramatically increasing global manufacturing of COVID-19
vaccines, tests and treatments, and ensuring equitable access, is
the fastest way to end the pandemic, the Director-General of the
World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
Speaking during his latest briefing from Geneva, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus pushed for more developers to support the COVID-19 Technology Access
Pool (C-TAP), the voluntary
platform for sharing scientific knowledge, data and intellectual
property.
“We’re holding the door open for pharmaceutical companies that
have become household names, although too few households have
benefited from the life-saving tools they have developed”, he
said.
“They control the IP that can save lives today, end this pandemic
soon and prevent future epidemics from spiraling out of control
and undermining health, economies and national security”.
Vaccine inequity unacceptable
C-TAP was established a year ago by the President
of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, and more than 40 Heads of
State, together with WHO.
President Alvarado Quesado, who also addressed journalists,
underlined the need to protect everyone, everywhere.
“It is not acceptable that more than 50 per cent of the globally
available vaccines were used in only five countries that account
for 50 per cent of global GDP. Shamefully, low-income countries
have received only 0.3 [per cent] of the world’s doses”, he said.
Tedros explained that contributing to C-TAP will allow qualified
producers across the world to manufacture products against
COVID-19.
If fully functional, it could lead to increased supply for
countries and the global vaccine solidarity initiative, COVAX.
Study into COVID-19 origins ‘poisoned by
politics’
Investigations into the origins of COVID-19 are being “poisoned
by politics”, a senior WHO official said on Friday.
Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, was responding to a
journalist’s question regarding a lack of progress on the launch
of a second phase following an international expert mission to
China in January.
Preliminary results, announced in February, found the novel
coronavirus was “extremely
unlikely” to have come from a lab, but perhaps jumped from
animals to humans.
Dr. Ryan noted that there have been increased media reports about
the investigation in recent days “with terribly little actual
news, or evidence, or new material”, which he found disturbing.
“We would, though, like for everyone out there to separate, if
they can, the politics of this issue from the science. This whole
process is being poisoned by politics”, he said.
Dr. Ryan added that countries and entities are free to pursue
their own theories of origin.
“Putting WHO in a position like it has been put in is very unfair
to the science we are trying to carry out. And it puts us as an
organization, frankly in an impossible position to deliver the
answers that the world wants”, he said.
“So, we would ask that we separate the science from the politics
and let us get on with finding the answers that we need in a
proper, positive atmosphere where we can find the science to
drive the solutions, through a process that is driven by
solidarity, as Dr. Tedros always says”.
