WFPHA at EB148: Statement on COVID-19 Response

The 148th session of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Executive Board take place on 18-26 January 2021.

The World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA) attended this session with a strong statement on COVID-19 Response.

The global civil society claims for equitable access to vaccines against Covid-19

To protect people’s lives, an effective and safe COVID-19 immunization should be considered a global public good, and vaccines should be produced at larger volumes, distributed equitably between countries, and provided at no cost to the user. Furthermore, without an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines between countries, the world economy will not recover, causing greater human suffering and premature mortality.

Unless governments and the pharmaceutical industry take urgent action to ensure that enough COVID-19 vaccine doses are produced, 92 low- and middle-income countries will be able to vaccinate against COVID-19 only one in five people in 2021. On the other hand, high-income countries, which account for just 14% of the world’s population, have already purchased 48% of the 8.6 billion doses of the most promising vaccines.

This can be achieved by waiving intellectual property rights to vaccines, tests, and treatments related to COVID-19, openly sharing the vaccines’ technology and intellectual property through the WHO, fully funding COVAX, stopping bilateral deals, and investing in WHO efforts and in the strengthening of national health systems.

Given these facts, WFPHA respectfully ask the Executive Board to take actions to materialize what was proposed in the Resolution WHA73.1 ‘Covid-19 response’ related to the UNGA Resolution A/RES/75/130 ‘Global Health and Foreign Policy’ . Both resolutions, signed by all UN and WHO Member States, decided for equitable access to vaccines to face COVID-19.