UCLG joins the Call of WHO for vaccine equity

UCLG JOINS THE CALL OF WHO FOR VACCINE EQUITY

Over a year since the first cases of COVID-19 were identified, we are starting to see possible ways out of the pandemic due to an unprecedented effort by all stakeholders, in particular the scientific sector, to deliver vaccines all over the world.

This is why we join the call by the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to start vaccinating health workers and those people at the highest risk of COVID-19 in the first 100 days of 2021.

The vaccination efforts, while remarkable, also lay bare the many inequalities that we still face, with low- and middle-income countries having the most difficulties accessing vaccines. The inequalities that the pandemic has exacerbated can often prevent that the people who need it most, and communities most at risk, receive vaccinations, costing lives and often intensifying the social and economic crisis that the entire world is immersed in.

Our destinies are linked and we will only overcome these great challenges if we work to ensure that vaccines reach all: starting by public workers at the front line. We are convinced that universality is not only possible but the only way to overcome this great challenge. As our UCLG Decalogue for the COVID Era states, solidarity has been a beacon of security over the past months while the vaccine was being developed. We need to continue in this spirit and ensure free and equitable distribution of vaccines to recover better and leave no one behind.

We need equitable access to vaccines to be guaranteed all around the world.