The Right Honourable Patricia Scotland QC, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat,
Your Excellency Dr Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare in the Government of India, and Chair of the 2021 Commonwealth Health Ministers Meeting,
Excellencies, Honourable Ministers, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
I would like to thank the Right Honourable Patricia Scotland for your leadership.
I would also like to express my special thanks to His Excellency Dr Harsh Vardhan, and all Health Ministers for their support and engagement with WHO since the beginning of the pandemic.
One of the many lessons of the pandemic is that we can only confront shared threats with shared solutions.
In an era when the forces of nationalism and isolationism threaten to tear at the fabric of international relations, the pandemic has shown that multilateralism is needed now, more than ever.
Groupings like the Commonwealth bring communities and nations together and provide a global voice, particularly for small states and small island developing states.
WHO is providing support to small island developing states for climate change readiness, adaptation, resilient health systems and food security.
WHO is committed to strengthening our partnership with the Commonwealth, and I look forward to signing the Memorandum of Understanding between our two organizations as soon as possible.
I had hoped we would be able to do that at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kigali last June, but as you know the meeting has been postponed for the second time.
I know this was not an easy decision, but it was the right decision.
The pandemic is still evolving, and globally we remain in a perilous situation.
While we are starting to see a decline in cases and deaths from COVID-19 at the global level, and across Commonwealth countries, that hides a growing disconnect.
In some countries with high vaccination rates, there appears to be a mindset that the pandemic is over, while others are experiencing huge waves of infection.
Even some places that have previously done very well at containing COVID-19 are seeing dramatic increases in cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
New variants of concern, fragile health systems, reduced implementation of public health measures and supply shortages of oxygen, dexamethasone and vaccines are all fanning the flames of the pandemic.
But there are solutions to these problems.
Many countries – including several Commonwealth countries – have shown that, with a consistent and tailored use of proven public health measures, this virus can be controlled, even without vaccines.
It means empowering and engaging communities to continue with the individual precautions that we know work: physical distancing, avoiding crowds, wearing masks, cleaning hands, covering coughs and opening windows.
Every tool at your disposal to drive transmission down must be used right now. Even in countries with the highest vaccination rates, public health capacities must be strengthened to prepare for the possibility of vaccine-evading variants.
Vaccines are reducing severe disease and death in countries that are fortunate enough to have them in sufficient quantities, and early results suggest that vaccines might also drive down transmission.
But the shocking global disparity in access to vaccines remains one of the biggest risks to ending the pandemic.
As President Ramaphosa himself has said, we are now facing “vaccine apartheid”. High-income countries account for 15% of the world’s population, but have 45% of the world’s vaccines.
Low- and lower-middle countries account for almost half of the world’s population, but have received just 17% of the world’s vaccines.
The situation is certainly more equitable than it would have been otherwise; so far COVAX has shipped more than 63 million doses of vaccine to 124 countries and economies.
But that represents just 0.5% of the combined population of those countries and economies.
The problem is not getting vaccines out of COVAX; the problem is getting them in.
Even now, some high-income countries are moving to vaccinate children and adolescents, while health workers, older people and other at-risk groups around the world remain unvaccinated.
WHO is working hard to address this disparity, through the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, through COVAX, through C-TAP, and other global initiatives.
We are seeing some progress. It was two Commonwealth countries, India and South Africa, that took the lead in pushing for a waiver of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 products at the World Trade Organization.
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Even as we respond to the pandemic, we must not lose sight of the many other health threats that the people of your nations face.
New WHO data show that as a result of COVID-19, 60 immunization campaigns are currently suspended in 50 countries.
Measles campaigns have now been delayed for more than a year, and serious outbreaks have erupted. WHO and our partners are working with countries to restore immunization services.
The disruptions to services for HIV/AIDS could potentially result in as many as five hundred thousand excess deaths globally.
In Africa, services for tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases have been disrupted in about half of countries, and malaria services in more than one third.
WHO is proud to support Commonwealth countries to meet their goal of halving malaria by 2023.
And we remain committed to working with all Commonwealth countries to restore and maintain essential services, and to drive progress towards universal health coverage.
The pandemic has only underlined why universal health coverage is so important, and I am really grateful for the strong commitment and example of many Commonwealth countries to supporting universal access to quality health services, particularly for the most vulnerable people.
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Excellencies,
Let me leave you with three areas in which we seek your support:
First, we seek the support of the Commonwealth in solving the global vaccine crisis, by fully funding the ACT Accelerator, by advocating for greater sharing of technology, know-how and intellectual property, and for those countries that can, by sharing doses with COVAX.
Second, we seek the commitment of every Commonwealth Member State to review and invest in its own capacities for epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response
As Ministers of Health, you have a vital role to play, but this must be a whole-of-government business, based on a One Health approach.
And third, we seek the support of the Commonwealth for shaping the global health architecture of the future.
In particular, we seek your support for the idea of a Framework Convention on Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which is now being discussed by WHO Member States.
There is significant international support for this idea, but there is also some resistance.
Now is the time for bold ideas and bold commitments. If we continue the same way, we must expect the same result: we will all remain vulnerable.
Pathogens have no regard for the size of our economies, the colour of our politics or where we decide to draw our borders.
We are one human species, sharing one planet. There is no future but a common future, working together for our common safety and prosperity.
I thank you.