Need Of The Hour! India Supports Call For The World To Have Equal Access To COVID-19 Vaccines
If there is one thing that the entire world is eagerly waiting for, it is a vaccine for COVID-19. And across the world, several, top pharma companies are on a mad rush to have a vaccine out at the earliest.?
So far several countries have already begun human testing of the vaccine or are close to doing it.
However, it is not likely to be market-ready any time this year, as a vaccine has to go through several clinical examinations to ascertain its efficiency, side effects, and long-term impact, etc.?
But rest assured, once the vaccine hits the market, the rich countries of the world are going to grab all they can and even will be ready to pay extra for it, leaving the poor countries in the lurch.?
Now there is a resolution in the UN General Assembly resolution that called for fair, transparent and equitable access to essential medical supplies and any future vaccines developed to fight COVID-19.?
The Mexico-drafted resolution 'International cooperation to ensure global access to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment to face COVID-19' which was co-sponsored by countries including India was adopted by the General Assembly by consensus on Monday.Pakistan was among the small minority of nations that did not sponsor the resolution.?
The resolution called for ensuring "fair, transparent, equitable, efficient and timely access to and distribution of preventive tools, laboratory testing, reagents and supporting materials, essential medical supplies, new diagnostics, drugs and future COVID-19 vaccines" to all nations, particular developing countries.?
"India has proactively engaged in supporting global availability of medicines and drugs by means of international cooperation and development partnerships. Also, we are facilitating the sourcing of global supplies of multilateral agencies such as UNICEF in the face of COVID-19. We were therefore glad to co-sponsor this important initiative," India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin told PTI.
India has been at the forefront of sending essential medical supplies and medicines such as anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several nations, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres saying he "salutes" nations like India that are helping other countries in their fight against the devastating pandemic.?
Several countries, including the US, Mauritius and Seychelles have already received the drug. In its neighborhood, India is sending the drug to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, The Maldives, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.?
Last month, US President Donald Trump had courted controversy after Germany alleged that he had offered "large sums of money" to get exclusive access to a coronavirus vaccine being developed by a German company.?
Trump reportedly wanted a Tubingen-based company CureVac which also has sites in Frankfurt and Boston to move its research wing to the United States and develop the vaccine "for the U.S. only."?
The Trump administration is also accused of piracy after PPEs meant for other counties were confiscated and sent to the US.Earlier this month there was a similar incident in India, where rapid COVID-19 testing kits bound for Tamil Nadu were diverted to the USA.
