Emmanuel Macron during a meeting at the Elysée Palace.
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ELIOT BLONDET-POOL / SIPA
Emmanuel Macron sounds the alarm on vaccines.
The head of state calls, in an interview with the
Journal du dimanche
, for a global coordination on vaccination.
“Without rapid, effective and united international collective action, we run the risk that the virus will escape us.
Many scientists and the WHO are warning about geographic inequalities in access to the vaccine: if regions are lagging behind then the virus will still be active there and likely to spread again throughout the world.
Since the start of vaccination campaigns in mid-December, rich countries have carved out the lion's share of anti-coronavirus vaccines, a still quite rare commodity.
To remedy this, Emmanuel Macron participated, Friday evening, in a WHO meeting to speed up the process, as indicated by Europe 1. The ACT-A initiative (accelerator of action) must coordinate efforts for a wider availability of vaccines, especially to poor countries.
With help from Washington
"African countries are rightly calling out to us about their access to vaccines," explains Emmanuel Macron.
The ACT-A initiative will have secured more than two billion doses of vaccines at a much better price than if each country had negotiated them separately, it is in itself a success.
But we still need to step up efforts, because every week counts.
"
The Elysee also notes that the arrival of Joe Biden at the White House has changed everything for the ACT-A initiative: the United States has released four billion euros for the purchase of vaccines.
The president of the first world power has made the reinstatement of the WHO by the United States one of the symbols of his beginning of mandate.
“It was one of my first topics of discussion with President Biden,” recalls Emmanuel Macron.
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Covid 19
Emmanuel Macron
Anti-covid vaccine
Coronavirus