Antonio Guterres: Vaccine inequality is a global shame

For the five million deaths from COVID-19UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addressed COP26 in Glasgow on Monday, noting that while rich countries are circulating third doses of the vaccine, only about 5% of people in Africa are fully vaccinated. This is a global shame, he stressed.

The death toll, which has risen to five million, he said, should also be a clear warning that we cannot be complacent. We are still seeing more deaths, said Guterres, overcrowded hospitals and exhausted health workers, at the risk of spreading new mutations that could cost more lives. At the same time, he said, there are other dangerous threats that allow COVID-19 flourish, such as misinformation, vaccine accumulation, vaccine nationalism, and a lack of global solidarity.

The Secretary-General urged world leaders to fully support the Global Vaccine Strategy he launched with the World Health Organization last month and said we should put vaccines in the arms of 40% of the world's population by the end of this year and 70% until the middle of 2022.

"It would be a mistake to think the pandemic is over, as restrictions are easing in many places," Guterres said, adding that the best way to honor missing people and support health workers is to fight it. virus every day, is to make equality in vaccines a reality.