Coronavirus vaccine nationalism 'will not help us': WHO
GENEVA (AFP) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned Friday that "vaccine nationalism" will not save the world, stating that rich countries who do come up with a vaccine for coronavirus will not be able to benefit by hogging it and keeping the anecdote from poor nations.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it would be in wealthier nations' interests to ensure that any vaccines eventually produced to protect against the new coronavirus were shared globally.
"Vaccine nationalism is not good, it will not help us," Tedros told the Aspen Security Forum in the United States, via video-link from the WHO''s headquarters in Geneva.
"For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it's a globalised world: the economies are intertwined. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover.
"The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who have the funding commit to this," he said.
He said the existence of the deadly respiratory disease anywhere put lives and livelihoods at risk everywhere.
"They are not giving charity to others: they are doing it for themselves, because when the rest of the world recovers and opens up, they also benefit."