Greta Thunberg joins fight vaccine inequity
Thunberg comments on Monday came as the World Health Organization announced 5.2 million new confirmed virus cases over the most recent week, the major weekly count yet, in line with the UN health agency.
The Swedish teen who inspired the "Fridays for Future" climate change movement chipped in 100,000 euros ($120,000) from her charitable foundation to the WHO Foundation to help purchase COVID-19 vaccines for countries where they are needed - especially in poor countries.
"It really is completely unethical that high-income countries are actually vaccinating young and healthy persons if that occurs at the expense of individuals in risk groups and on leading lines in low- and middle-income countries," said Thunberg, who was invited as a guest for a normal WHO briefing.
While Thunberg hailed the development of COVID-19 vaccines in "record time," she cited estimates that 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have obtained them up to now, while only one 1 in 500 in middle- and lower-income countries have. "The international community, governments and vaccine developers must step up their game and address the tragedy that is vaccine inequity," she said. "Just with the climate crisis, those people who are the most vulnerable need to be prioritised and global problems require global solutions."
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said new COVID-19 cases rose for an eighth straight week around the globe and deaths have risen for a fifth straight week.
He said infections among persons 25 to 59 are "increasing at an alarming rate, possibly therefore of highly contagious variants and increased social mixing among younger adults."
More than 3 million COVID-19 patients have died in the pandemic and over 141 million have been infected, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, but authorities say both numbers understate the real toll of the pandemic.
