PM Briceño Speaks Out Against Vaccine Hoarding By Some Countries

John Briceño

Speaking on equity and fairness in global responses, Belize’s Prime Minister spoke out against global acts of vaccine hoarding and predatory purchasing. As PM Briceño noted, of the more than eight billion doses of vaccines that have been administered, seventy-three percent have been given in ten countries alone. He called on the multilateral system to be more effective in protecting the rights of all people.

Prime Minister John Briceño

“COVAX, the multilateral mechanism for vaccine distribution has been unable to truly to meet the needs of its subscribers. The undermining of COVAX, through export bands, vaccine hoarding, and predatory purchasing, has resulted in extreme inequalities of access to vaccines. Of the more than five point seven billion vaccines doses that have been administered globally, seventy-three percent have been given in just ten countries. COVAX has had to cut its forecast for vaccine distribution by twenty-five percent, for 2021. Belize has no delivery date for its next COVAX shipment. As the Director-General of the WHO said, the longer vaccine inequality persists, the more the vaccine will keep circulating and changing. The longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and hinder the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective.”