Scott Morrison advocated compulsory vaccination once a vaccine is available.
United Nations, United States:
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison insisted on Friday that any nation that develops a Covid-19 vaccine shares it universally, warning that history would be a “stern judge” otherwise.
Morrison made the call to the United Nations as the United States, Australia’s long-standing allies, resists global efforts to collaborate on a vaccine.
“When it comes to a vaccine, Australia’s point of view is very clear – anyone who finds the vaccine has to share it,” Morrison said in a message to the UN virtual General Assembly recorded outside. the iconic Sydney Opera House.
“It is a global responsibility and it is a moral responsibility for a vaccine to be shared everywhere,” he said.
“Some might see a short term benefit or even a profit, but I assure you, to anyone who might think of it – mankind will have a very long memory and be a very, very severe judge.”
Morrison has pledged Australia will share a vaccine if it finds out and has pledged to support Covax, the United Nations initiative that aims to have two billion doses of a vaccine ready for universal distribution by end of 2021.
The United States, China and Russia – which, to great skepticism, has already unveiled its own vaccine – have avoided Covax.
President Donald Trump’s administration announced that the United States would pull out of the World Health Organization, calling it biased towards China, and refused to promise to share Covid research, fearing intellectual property theft American pharmaceutical companies.
In a marked difference from Trump, Morrison credited the WHO’s efforts to contain Covid-19.
But Australia has joined the United States in calling for an investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, news of which was initially suppressed when cases surfaced in China late last year.
“We have to do everything we can to understand what happened for the sole purpose of preventing it from happening again,” Morrison said.
Australia’s call for an investigation has contributed to a sharp deterioration in relations with China, whose ties with the United States have also deteriorated significantly.
Australia, with its geographic isolation and strict measures, has been more successful than most Western countries in containing Covid-19.
Morrison advocated compulsory vaccination once a vaccine is available.
“Global public good”
Leaders from developing and middle-income countries also called for vaccine sharing as they took the virtual platform at the annual United Nations summit.
“I urge that Covid-19 vaccines and drugs be seen as global public goods accessible to all,” said Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, whose speech ignored growing pro-democracy protests demanding his resignation.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez also called for a Covid vaccine to be “a global public good”.
“With the pandemic, as with poverty, no one will be saved alone,” Fernandez said.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, referring to the US-China rivalry, urged the great powers to end the “permanent confrontation” and “lead the fight against this pandemic and the global recession”, including working together on a vaccine.
And Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said of Covax: “It is only through this that we can have patent-free vaccines and technologies that can be rightly distributed with special attention to the most vulnerable.”
Latin America has suffered a particularly hard blow from Covid-19 with nearly nine million cases and more than 330,000 deaths, a third of the global total, according to an AFP count based on official data.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
