Argentina says COVID-19 vaccines must become "global public good"

Buenos Aires (Argentina), April 18: Argentinean Foreign Minister Felipe Sola asked the United Nations (UN) that vaccines against COVID-19 be seen as a "global public good which everyone should be able to access," the Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday.
Sola announced Argentina's position during the Special Ministerial Meeting organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) dedicated to the topic of vaccines.
"Despite having the first vaccines in just 12 months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 0.1 percent of the doses administered in the world were in low-income countries, while the high-income countries make up more than half of the injected doses," he said.
Sola called on the international community to "avoid practices that encourage the shortage of critical supplies, treatments, and vaccines" against COVID-19.
He also declared Argentina's support for financing schemes such as the COVAX system, led by the WHO, and highlighted the importance of applying the Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights flexibly to promote the production, competition, and local development of vaccines.
"Vaccines for COVID-19 must be conceived as a global public good that everyone should be able to access," he said.
The Argentinean foreign minister also highlighted the importance of "removing the obstacles that prevent scaling up production and guaranteeing an equitable distribution" of injections.
"No one will be safe until we all are," the minister said.
Source: Xinhua