UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday repeated the call to support the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator in order to ensure equitable and worldwide access to vaccines
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th September, 2020) UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday repeated the call to support the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator in order to ensure equitable and worldwide access to vaccines.
"It is in every country's national and economic self-interest to work together to massively expand access to tests and treatments and to support a vaccine as a global public good, a people's vaccine available and affordable for everyone everywhere. The ACT Accelerator with its COVAX facility is the vehicle to get us there," Guterres told a high-level event at the UN General Assembly focused on accelerating the end of the pandemic.
Guterres stressed the ACT Accelerator was the only safe and certain way to reopen the world economy and guarantee the most successful vaccine reaches the largest number of people.
The former prime minister of Portugal called on countries to increase their financial support for the initiative as it is still sorely underfunded.
"The current financing gap for ACT Accelerator stands at $35 billion. That's less than 1 percent of what G20 governments have already committed to domestic stimulus packages. To put it another way, it's roughly equivalent to what the world spends on cigarettes every two weeks. Fully financing the ACT Accelerator will help to control the pandemic, restore confidence and stimulate the global recovery," Guterres said in a video address.
He said that this call was not a financial challenge but a test of global solidarity. Addressing world leaders, Guterres said that this was the moment to reject nationalism and in favor of shared humanity.
