G7 billion vaccine pledge not enough to stop Covid from spreading ‘like wildfire’, says UN

G7 billion vaccine pledge not enough to stop Covid from spreading ‘like wildfire’, says UN

Boris Johnson's proposal to provide a billion coronavirus vaccines to the developing world will be insufficient without a program to double global production and ensure equitable distribution, the United Nations Secretary General has said. In an apparent endorsement of President Joe Biden's proposal to waive intellectual property rights on vaccines , Antonio Guterres called for a "sharing of knowledge" and technologies in a bid to stamp out the Covid-19 virus worldwide. "It is obvious that we must share the knowledge, but also all the aspects necessary to allow the production of vaccines. That means mobilising all the capacities that exist or might exist with transfer of technologies," he said. "The waiver is an element but it is not the only one." "I understand that companies must be supported. I am asking for fairness in the way things are measured and so that companies are making reasonable profits that they are supposed to make, but that at the same time capacity is doubled," he said. "The countries that can produce vaccines today or can be able to do so should come together in an emergency task force able to deal with the pharmaceutical industry in order to define a successful outcome.