display

Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) warns of the consequences of the lockdown for poor countries and calls on Europe to become more involved in global vaccine financing.

It was missing 25 billion euros to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population in developing countries, said Müller of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".

“We have to keep this global dimension in mind if we want to stop the pandemic,” demanded Müller.

The vaccine should also be available to the poorest.

"Not sometime, but this year."

Currently, the richest 14 percent of the population would have got more than 50 percent of the vaccine.

Europe must not make the mistake of believing that it can only defeat the virus on its own continent, the minister warned: "If we were virus-free, it would come back overnight by plane or with a pallet of goods."

display

Müller advocated investing in the expansion of global production capacities.

"Countries like South Africa have good prerequisites to be able to manufacture vaccines for Africa." To do this, Germany would have to increase its share of global vaccination funding to one billion euros this year.

"That would be an important sign of international solidarity."

The European Union should also be more involved.

“The US has announced four billion under new President Joe Biden.

The European Union must at least catch up with that. "

Global hunger, economic and poverty crisis due to Corona

The corona pandemic has triggered a dramatic hunger, economic and poverty crisis worldwide.

"Sometimes I have the impression that we in Europe do not see the extent of the consequences," said the CSU politician.

"As a result of the lockdown, supply chains collapsed - with dramatic consequences in developing countries: Experts estimate that two million people die of tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria because drugs no longer arrive for treatment."

Currently, only every tenth child goes to school.

Many children would probably never go back to school, said Müller and added: “There is also hunger because supply chains have failed and jobs are falling.

Almost 300 million people have already lost their jobs.

Without short-time work benefits or social programs, they are left with nothing.

More people die from these consequences of the pandemic than from the virus itself. "