Newsman: The world leaders urges to declare coronavirus vaccine as global public goods in the special United Nation’s session on Covid-19, while The U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that “the biggest global recession in eight decades” is inevitable and the world leaders must need to address this issue. Speaking to world leaders at the General Assembly’s first and virtual special session on COVID-19 He pointed to rising poverty, the frightening threat of famine and warned about the prospect of “the biggest global recession in eight decades.” But the secretary general also said that these impacts aren’t due to the coronavirus alone but are the result of long-term inequalities and injustices.
General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir urges to ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines, work together to protect the most vulnerable countries. General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir opened the two-day session, calling it a historic and overdue moment of reckoning to forge a path to end the pandemic that not only ensures people everywhere have access to vaccines but mobilizes financial resources for “an inclusive and resilient recovery.”
Nearly 80 world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Union chief Charles Michel, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani spoke to the session.
Among other over 50 government ministers and 10 deputy leaders and ministers were scheduled to speak during the special session that began with GA President Volkan Bozkir asking masked diplomats from the U.N.’s 193 member nations in the assembly hall to stand in silent tribute to the 1.5 million people who have lost their lives to COVID-19.
Bozkir called the session “a test for multilateralism” and said the world must ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines, protect the most vulnerable countries and provide adequate resources for an economic recovery that goes beyond pre-pandemic levels, and adopt policies that don’t harm human rights or undermine democratic institutions.
Secretary General Guterres warned that it’s foolish to believe a vaccine can undo damage from the global pandemic that will last for years or even decades. He said the social and economic impact of COVID-19 “is enormous and growing.”
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also accused some countries without mention name of ignoring or rejecting the World Health Organization’s recommendations at the beginning of the crisis early this year, that resulted nations going in their own directions and the virus spreading “in every direction.”
“Nearly a year into the pandemic, we face a human tragedy, and a public health, humanitarian and development emergency,” Guterres said.
Guterres has been urging the Group of 20 ,the world’s richest nations to back WHO’s cash-strapped ACT-Accelerator program to develop and distribute vaccines that includes Covax, an ambitious global project to buy and deliver virus vaccines for the world’s poorest people.
The UNGS indicated his frustration at the lack of a significant response and told world leaders that there is a $28 billion financial gap, “including $4.3 billion urgently needed for the next two months.”
French President Emmanuel Macron in a recorded speech said “we must continue to raise funds from the entire international community” and mentioned that $10 billion has been raised for the ACT-Accelerator.
He repeated the proposal he made at last month’s G20 summit for “a donation mechanism” that would ensure a portion of the first doses of vaccines that become available whether from Europe, China, Russia or the United States -be used to vaccinate priority groups in developing countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged additional funding for the ACT-Accelerator is needed and a worthwhile investment, mentioning progress on developing vaccines. Germany is also campaigning to strengthen WHO to better respond “to international health threats,” she said.
European Union chief Charles Michel said the key lesson from the pandemic is “we were caught unprepared.” He proposed ‘mobilization and international solidarity to be the basis of a new international treaty within the World Health Organization’ to deal with future pandemics. Guarantee access to vaccines, treatment and tests for future pandemics should be laid down in a treaty, he said.
Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, on behalf of the 120-member Nonaligned Movement, noted that the pandemic “has exposed and aggravated vulnerabilities and inequalities in both developing and developed countries.”
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said, “It is crucial that the vaccine or vaccines to address coronavirus be declared by the United Nations and by the World Health Organization as global public goods.”
“Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China said vaccines “should be for global public good and accessible and affordable for developing countries.”
Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani called for a joint response by the world, saying “the second wave of the pandemic is at our doorstep,” -otherwise the inequalities between developed and developing nations will continue even as a vaccine becomes available.
