PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte called on the United Nations to ensure universal access to vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) as well as come up with a coordinated battle plan against the pandemic.
Duterte, in his first address before the United National General Assembly high-level general debate on September 22, 2020 (New York date), said the vaccine must be made available both rich and poor nations alike as a matter of policy.
Access to the vaccine must not be denied nor withheld, he stressed.
“The Philippines joins our partners in the Asean and the Non-Aligned Movement in raising our collective voice: the Covid-19 vaccine must be considered a global public good. Let us be clear on this,” he said.
The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) earlier said the Philippines has signed confidentiality disclosure agreements with five vaccine developers, namely, Seqirus in Australia, Gamaleya in Russia, Adimmune in Taiwan, Sinovac in China and Sinopharm in China.
The Philippines is also participating in the World Health Organization (WHO) solidarity trials for vaccine candidates against Covid-19.
As of September 10, eight institutes and pharmaceutical companies were leading the global race to develop a vaccine and were either conducting or have completed phase three clinical trials.
These are AstraZeneca with University of Oxford, CanSino with Beijing Institute of Technology, Gamaleya Research Institute of Russia, Janssen Pharmaceutical (USA), Sinovac (China), Sinopharm (China), Moderna (USA), and Pfizer (USA).
Aside from making the vaccine available to all, the UN must also ensure universal access to technologies and products aimed at fighting the highly infectious disease to expedite global recovery from the pandemic, Duterte said.
He further called for coordinated international plans and efforts to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Covid-19 knows no border. It knows no nationality. It knows no race. It knows no gender. It knows no age. It knows no creed,” he said.
He noted that each nation has come up with its own strategy to address the outbreak, but said the UN must coordinate all these efforts “to pursue a common purpose”.
At the same time, he welcomed the launch of the UN Covid Response and Recovery Fund.
Duterte also called for a global health agenda with enough resources and policy space for the WHO.
“We need a WHO that is quick to coordinate and quicker to respond. The Philippines will do its part in the pooling of global resources. Our health workers are among the best,” he said.
The President stressed that how the world addresses Covid-19 will define its future and urged member-states to examine whether the UN has remained true to its principles, vision and mission that were conceptualized 75 years ago.
As of September 23, 2020, more than 31.6 million people have contracted Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
A total of 970,857 had died from the disease.
In the Philippines, 291,789 people have been infected as of September 22, including 5,049 deaths and 230,643 recoveries. (Marites Villamor-Ilano/SunStar Philippines)