PM Mottley backs blue-ribbon panel’s call for COVID vaccine finance

An independent report that suggested the COVID-19 pandemic could have been averted had speedier action been taken, has been endorsed by Prime Minister Mottley.

Among several recommendations of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response is for wealthy G7 nations to commit US$1.9 billion ($3.8 billion) to the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility to provide vaccine support for low-income countries.

The co-chairs of the independent panel, Liberia former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and New Zealand former Prime Minister Helen Clark presented their findings and recommendations on Wednesday.

In hailing the report as “timely and excellent work”, Mottley said it was exactly what was needed to win the battle against the respiratory virus that has so far claimed over 3.3 million lives.

On Tuesday, while receiving Barbados’ second tranche of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines from the COVAX facility, Mottley called for global action to be taken to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

The PM said: “Barbados and other countries like mine have been calling on the international community for urgent global action. We believe that many of the challenges have been addressed in this report.

“In the immediate, the global community cannot effectively address these challenges without addressing vaccine equity; technology transfer and other trade-related issues; international financial support in the fight against the pandemic, and the post-pandemic economic recovery, which must be green, resilient and inclusive.”

She stressed that countries must have the fiscal space to pursue post-pandemic recovery, which must be financed.

In thanking the panel for the recommendations, Mottley again called for global leadership in the COVID fight.

“Now is the time for global leadership, and in fact, now is the time for the convening of an urgent global summit, so that we can put these issues behind us and get on to the business of stopping people from dying from COVID, and allowing countries to resume the path to development and recovery,” she declared.

The panel, which was set up by the WHO, argued that its Emergency Committee should have declared the outbreak in China an international emergency a week earlier than it did.

The report claimed that the month following the WHO’s declaration was “lost” as countries failed to take appropriate measures to halt the virus’s spread.

It further maintained that instead of countries preparing their healthcare systems for an influx of COVID-19 patients, much of the world descended into a “winner takes all” scramble for protective equipment and medicines.

The report said unless urgent action was taken the world was vulnerable to another major disease outbreak.

Among some of its suggestions is for the establishment of a new Global Threats Council with the power to hold countries accountable; the creation of a Disease Surveillance System to publish information without the approval of the countries concerned and for vaccines to be classified as public goods. (RB)