Vaccine equity needed to defeat the pandemic
Sunday 21 February 2021
Caura Hospital s infection prevention and control nurse Keisha Prevatt-Gomez is one of the first frontline workers to recieve the covid19 vaccine at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facility last week. - Marvin Hamilton
Op-ed published by CNN co-authored by Prime Minister Dr Rowley, chairman of Caricom, and Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. On Thursday, during a virtual press conference hosted by WHO, Dr Rowley, speaking in his capacity as chair of Caricom called for the equitable distribution of vaccines to benefit all mankind and not just the privileged few.
Rowley, WHO head: Equal access to covid19 vaccines critical
Saturday 20 February 2021
Nurse Keisha Prevatt-Gomez receives the covid19 vaccine at the Couva Hospital and Multi-Training Facilty on February 17. PHOTO BY MARVIN HAMILTON -
THE Prime Minister and World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus have said equity of access to covid19 vaccines is critical to bringing the pandemic under control.
Dr Rowley and Ghebreyesus expressed this position in a joint opinion entitled – This is our best chance at defeating the pandemic – published on CNN s website on Friday.
The opinion noted that nurse Keisha Prevatt-Gomez was the first frontline health worker to be vaccinated in Trinidad and Tobago this week. TT received 2,000 vaccines donated by Barbados out of a shipment of 100,000 sent to that country by the government of India.
Opinion: This is our best chance at defeating the pandemic msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
WHO Director-General s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 29 January 2021
Format
Tomorrow marks one year since I declared a public health emergency of international concern over the outbreak of novel coronavirus – the highest level of alarm under international law.
There is now the real danger that the very tools that could help to end the pandemic – vaccines – may exacerbate those same inequalities. My message to governments is to vaccinate your health workers and older people, and share excess doses with COVAX, so other countries can do the same.
This week we have released two products to close gaps in care and improve health outcomes globally. The first is the Essential Diagnostics List, a basket of diagnostics that WHO recommends should be available at point-of-care and in laboratories to improve timely and life-saving diagnosis. The second product is a new 10-year plan for neglected tropical diseases – a set of 20 illnesses that affect more than a