Foreign Desk Report
Geneva: President of the Economic and Social Council and the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Munir Akram has called for a universal action to fight against coronavirus pandemic.
In his closing statement at ‘A Vaccine for all’ Special Ministerial Meeting by the Economic and Social Council, he stressed to work with the international organizations that are in the lead for collective action. The Ambassador advocated temporary suspension of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights restrictions to expand the production of corona vaccines.
Terming lives are more important than incentives, Munir Akram also called for investment in the production facilities. He said we need to release the stock of excess vaccines that are held by some countries and to end the export and other restrictions, which are displays of vaccine nationalism.
He stressed equipping developing countries to build the logistics, storage, and distribution capacities that they will need to distribute the vaccine equitably within the country.
Earlier, The President of UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram, Friday called for ramping up production of vaccines against coronavirus in order to defeat the deadly pandemic that has caused a human, economic and social crisis.
“Vaccines offer our best hope in addressing this pandemic and overcoming it,” he said in his opening statement at ECOSOC’s special ministerial meeting on ‘A vaccine for all’. This event is being held to take stock of the endeavors to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and to try to identify concrete actions into address gaps.
“Covid-19 is the most severe health and economic crisis, world has faced in the century,” the ECOSOC chief said. “We have all expressed solidarity, unity in the face of this pandemic,” the ECOSOC chief said, adding, “We need to match this expression of solidarity with actions.”
Access to vaccines reflect and inherent inequality in the world, Ambassador Akram said, noting that some have vaccinated, close to 40% of the population. But Asia, Africa, and Latin America, he said, are far behind with some having vaccinated, only to 1-3% of their populations, and some none at all.
“In addition to being a moral imperative, universal coverage by the vaccines is the only realistic option to ending the pandemic.” In this regard, efforts were needed to address the issues of intellectual property and flexibilities, the funding gap, and especially the funding gap of the Act accelerator and the COVAX facility.
