UNGA President: Continued vaccine inequity will needlessly prolong pandemic

President of the 76th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Abdulla Shahid warned on Wednesday that continued global disparities in vaccine access will needlessly prolong the COVID-19 pandemic. 

He made the remark in his briefing on the priorities for the resumed part of the 76th session. 

Shahid, the Maldivian Foreign Minister, said the surest way to end the pandemic was to ensure vaccine equity. 

“The surest way to end the pandemic is through ensuring vaccines for all. Continued global disparities in vaccine access will needlessly prolong the pandemic,” he said. 

Shahid said that the omicron variant - which has led to a global surge in COVID-19 cases - has made clear that the word still has a long way to go.  

“We cannot let this continue; we cannot risk more variants with our delays. We must act quickly and decisively to achieve vaccine equity,” he said. “New variants will emerge, some perhaps more lethal, or more likely to evade our vaccines. This threatens to undo all the progress we have made over the past two years.” 

He said that timely access to vaccines, for everyone, everywhere, was the way to break the cycle. 

Shahid urged the global community to do their due diligence to speed up the production and distribution of vaccines, remove barriers to rollout, and commit to vaccine equity. 

I take this opportunity to thank the many permanent representatives, as I said before, who have joined my “new year’s resolution”, calling for vaccine equity. With your continued support, we can reach our target of ensuring vaccines for all. 

While many of the wealthier countries have administered booster shots to a large percentage of their population, poorer countries continue to appeal for assistance to administer the first vaccine shot.