Iran Press/Europe: As a new wave of COVID-19 disease sweeps across the world, discrimination in the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine and lack of access to medicines and medical equipment has exposed a new face of discrimination and terrorism by the world's richest nations.
The report comes as the death toll from COVID-19 is rising with new waves of the disease. The number of people infected in India has exceeded 16 million, and the country is struggling with a shortage of medical staff and equipment.
Latin American countries and most African countries not only do not have access to vaccines but also to medicines and medical equipment.
Although, from the beginning of the outbreak of the disease, many officials of international organizations emphasized the cooperation and participation of countries to fight this pandemic. However, in reality, from the very beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, the access of poor countries to medicine and treatment was not equal to that of rich countries, and they did not receive any assistance.
The discovery of the coronavirus vaccine sparked the improvement and prevention of the disease, giving many hope and happiness. World Health Organization officials defined the distribution program for the coronavirus vaccine under the auspices of COVAX, and hoped that the program would provide vaccines to various countries around the world; But over time, that is likely to change.
Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the World Health Organization, has officially announced that poor countries do not yet have access to the vaccine.
According to published reports, approximately 900 million doses of the vaccine have been injected worldwide, but 81% of them are in high- or middle-income countries.
This discrimination comes at a time when many of the world's richest countries are even stockpiling the coronavirus vaccine and refusing to sell or supply it to other countries. The results of the Poverty Alleviation Campaign report show that the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and Japan have already stockpiled more than three billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine, far more than their population needs.
However, despite all the international recommendations and requests in the field of health, rich countries have applied apartheid in its new form.
Many of these countries, even at home, have considered racial, religious, etc. in the issue of vaccination, and in the external dimension, they have prevented the access of weaker countries to the vaccine.
On the other hand, the continuation of US sanctions against some countries in this situation has shown another dimension of drug terrorism.
"The issue of the vaccine is not political in itself, but it has been politicized," said Juan Manuel Olarita, a legal and political expert. "That is, only multinational corporations affiliated with imperialism are allowed to distribute it, and it is implied that if one does not follow this trend, there will be no way out of economic bankruptcy."
Despite all the slogans of human rights and freedom that officials in European and American countries have been chanting for years, now that the lives of millions of people are in danger, they are still playing their political, economic, and power-seeking game, using the coronavirus vaccine.
Written by: Atousa Dinyarian
207/214
Read More:
Africa reports four million COVID-19 confirmed cases
Ghana, the first nation to receive vaccines from Covax
WHO chief blames rich nations for undermining COVAX
