WIREDGOV

EXPERT COMMENT

Global leadership is needed to tackle the climate crisis, but a failure in solidarity on COVID-19 leaves the creditability of world leaders in huge doubt.

At the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2019 – practically on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic – all countries committed themselves to the global development goal of universal health coverage (UHC), meaning all people across the world should receive health services according to their needs.

In the case of vaccines for infectious diseases, this should mean the most vulnerable – those most at risk of suffering serious adverse health impacts – would receive vaccines first, while those not needing vaccines urgently would go to the back of the queue. Little did the world then know that these principles of fairness and equity would be put to the test so quickly, or that the global community would fail so dismally in living up to them.

It is perhaps inevitable that national leaders would try to protect their own vulnerable populations first and then scale up coverage of other groups, but current levels of vaccine inequity indicate an almost complete indifference by rich countries to vaccinate high-risk groups in developing countries.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.