World has entered stage of ‘vaccine apartheid’ – WHO head

May 18, 2021 - 11:33 AM
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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference in Geneva Switzerland July 3, 2020. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool via Reuters/File Photo)

ZURICH — The world has reached a situation of “vaccine apartheid“, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday, and was no longer just at risk of that status.

“The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing,” he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event.

Earlier, he called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to make shots available to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility sooner than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions. —Reporting by Emma Frage and Michael Shields