[COVID-19]
[VACCINES FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES]
[ANNE-MARIE DIAS BORGES] Most of us have been affected in one way or another
by this global pandemic.
Personally, I felt the wrath of this pandemic
as, sadly, my father passed away early this year.
Who would have thought,
little over a year after the World Health Organization (WHO)
declared the pandemic,
that safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines
would already be news?
Still great challenges remain.
While the rollout of these vaccines in developing countries
is critical to protecting lives,
building human capital and stimulating economic recovery,
the current crisis is exacerbating inequalities throughout the world.
And without access to vaccines, the gap will widen further.
Ensuring developing countries can access,
as well as safely distribute, vaccines
call for strong partnership and cooperation.
Over the next hour, we'll be asking
how are developing countries preparing for large-scale
rollouts of vaccines and what gaps in access and distribution remain?
How are the private and public sector
helping to address the challenge?
And how can efforts to address this crisis
help us prepare for future pandemics?
[DAVID R. MALPASS] Throughout our COVID-19 response,
we're paying close attention to the need, to protect and invest in people.
Investing in health education, gender and social protection
helps build resilience.
When countries face crises, whether from economic downturns,
pandemics, or climate change.
As countries return to sustainable growth,
they will continue to face intense fiscal pressures.
They will need to prioritize smart investments in people
that deliver dividends for the future.
It's critical to get economies growing faster
and to keep more families from falling into poverty,
These steps and our partnerships together
within countries and across regions and globally
are the essential building blocks to a sustainable and inclusive recovery.
[ANNE-MARIE DIAS BORGES] Let's now take a closer look at the work underway in developing countries
to prepare for large scale vaccine rollout.
[TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS] If this pandemic is politicized,
and if there are especially politicization at the country level,
then the crack between the different political positions
could be exploited by the virus.
And we have seen that in many countries.
The bottleneck here is lack of political will.
I think it's better to say it openly.
If the major countries agreed to solve this problem to address vaccine equity,
they can do it. They have everything.
They have everything to do it.
The virus will not be defeated in a divided world.
We need to share everything that we have in order to defeat this virus.
And the sharing or supporting each other is not charity.
For me.
It is actually in the best interest of each and every nation.
[HENRIETTA H. FORE] Women are often the primary
caregivers, both as healthcare workers, but also at home.
And as a result, they are really torn in every direction.
And what happens is that women, their participation in work and paid work
is reducing around the world, is in decline,
it's having an enormous impact on women and children.
And we cannot trade one crisis - the pandemic - for another crisis,
in which we lose the women and the girls and the children in our world.
[AXEL VAN TROTSENBURG] Ultimately we need systematic health system strengthening.
This is heart work.
The cameras won't be there, but I think it is the absolute necessary part that we have to do.
Our concern is that we have to build back better, stronger, learning,
and we need to keep the solidarity,
not only in the health area,
but across the development spectrum.
And that only this crisis has shown [that] only together, we will survive;
only together, we will strive;
and only together, we will prosper.
[ESPERANZA MARTINEZ] I am sure that vaccination for all can happen.
If we put aside borders and politics and focused on our shared humanity,
we need to make sure that everyone,
disregarding of who they are and where they live,
has access to vaccines.
Not only for COVID-19, but also for other preventable diseases that every year
cause so many deaths and so much disability.
We also need to make sure that healthcare workers and vaccinators
can carry out their jobs without being attacked.
And we need to remember finally
that there are millions of people facing humanitarian crisis today
and their needs also need to be met.
My hope, my wish for 2021
is that we collectively demonstrate that we can deliver.
Both in the humanitarian space and in the vaccine space.
Thank you.
[ANNE-MARIE DIAS BORGES] Let's turn and look at what can be done now,
to learn from this crisis, and to help developing countries
respond to the next pandemic.
All the lessons that could strengthen resilience and
help countries better prepare for future shocks.
[NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA] If you look at the trillions of dollars we spent in this pandemic,
just responding to the health and economic issues,
if we had spent maybe 100 or 200 billion on preparedness before that
we would have been better off.
The biggest thing for economic recovery for developing countries
is getting the vaccines that they need in order to deal with the pandemic.
I often say the biggest economic stimulus for developing countries
would be access to these vaccines.
[RICHARD HATCHETT] First, I think we need to build on the accomplishments and the improvable models
really both technical institutional and operational that have emerged from the pandemic.
We have compressed a decades' worth of technology into perhaps a year.
We will emerge from the pandemic with new tools that will allow us to prepare for the future.
[MARI PANGESTU] As we are rolling out the response to the pandemic,
we must not forget some of the priority health issues
such as making sure that health services for women, maternal health care,
and children immunization, are not put by the side
as you are responding to the pandemic.
So that's one area of key importance.
Second, as we are rolling out our program, we're learning a lot on the ground
as to how you can actually,
as you do your preparedness, also build-out for a medium-term strengthening of the health systems,
whether it's the infrastructure,
whether it's the training of the health workers
and a very important role of technology.
The possibility to have information
on those getting vaccinated, monitoring it and so on.
I think this can really be important for the future.
[GRO H. BRUNDTLAND] The rapid development of vaccines
for COVID-19 has been remarkable.
But it is all the more devastating that while science has advanced
the world has stalled
in terms of equity.
The poorest countries are seeing virtually none of the benefits
of COVID-19 vaccines.
Vaccine delivery continues to be determined by economic power,
production capacity and competition,
rather than public health and unacceptable failure of global preparedness.
The ugly truth is
that at this stage of the COVID-19 response, we are seeing
how money talks in the absence of appropriate global financing structures.
Resources are flowing to the rich.
We will pay the price in terms of economic damage,
global instability, and a prolonged pandemic.
[ANNE-MARIE DIAS BORGES] Frontline workers and community leaders
have been celebrated as the true heroes of these times,
risking their lives to protect ours and helping educate, distribute, and deploy vaccines.
Let's hear from some of them now about the challenges that they face.
[SPRING MEETINGS 2021]
[ELLEN PEPRAH, DOCTOR] One of the biggest problems we are facing
is equitable access.
I believe that every healthcare professional
in every parts of the country deserves access to the vaccines.
[HUMBERTO GOMEZ, DOCTOR] No country can do it alone.
So collaboration, especially in the case of vaccines availability and distribution is key.
[ZHYLDYZ TOKTORBAEVA, OFFICIAL] In my opinion, in social media today,
there is so much information
- which is mostly false - about vaccination.
[NAMRATA PRADHAN, DOCTOR] By vaccinating against COVID-19. We will be making
an effort together to fight the fear we have been living with in the past year.
[MUSIC]
[SPRING MEETINGS 2021]