Coronavirus.- The WTO asks the United Kingdom to start sharing its vaccines with the most disadvantaged countries

MADRID, 20 (EUROPA PRESS)

The new director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has asked the United Kingdom not to wait for a surplus of vaccines to start sharing them with poorer countries, understanding that the country is not leaving to run out of inoculations and can stabilize the rate of global distribution.

“I don’t think we have to wait for a surplus when there are already people who have it. I think that if they are going to make a donation they should make it now, because equal access for poor countries benefits rich countries,” he said in statements to the BBC network.

Experts also point out that an immediate donation helps prevent the virus from continuing to mutate into strains that could be more difficult to eradicate, despite the vaccine.

“The nature of the pandemic and the mutation of many variants means that no country can feel safe until all countries have taken precautions to vaccinate their population,” agreed the director general of the WTO, who was president of the global alliance of vaccines, GAVI.

These statements respond to the comments made this Friday by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who did say that the United Kingdom will wait for the population to be vaccinated before donating a surplus of the drugs.

In this sense, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, recommended that same day the adoption of a global vaccination plan under the auspices of the G20 and in line with the request of the French President, Emmanuel Macron, who estimated that rich countries they could give up to 5 percent of their vaccinations to the most disadvantaged.

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