Frankfurt (AFP)

"While the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic was defined by a collective failure to take preparedness seriously and act quickly on the basis of science, the second was marked by deep inequalities and leadership failure. to understand our interdependence and act accordingly, "according to the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB).

This independent body created by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank denounces in a report published in Berlin the persistent failures of the global response to the pandemic.

His conclusion: the pandemic has revealed an "unequal, divided and irresponsible" world.

Published at the World Health Summit in Berlin, this report comes as the death toll from the coronavirus approaches five million worldwide, according to an AFP tally.

The world facing the coronavirus Simon MALFATTO AFP

Given the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, the WHO estimates that the overall death toll could be two to three times higher.

"Deep shame"

Out of more than six billion doses of vaccine administered worldwide, only 1.4% concerned fully vaccinated inhabitants in poor countries, denounced earlier this month the head of the WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

"Scientific progress during Covid-19, in particular the speed of vaccine development, gives us cause for pride," said GPMB co-president Elhadj As Sy in the preface to the report.

Residents line up to fill oxygen tanks for people with Covid-19, July 14, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar Ye Aung THU AFP / Archives

"However, we must feel deep shame in the face of multiple tragedies - the hoarding of vaccines, the devastating oxygen shortages in low-income countries, the generation of children deprived of education, the collapse of economies and fragile health systems ", according to the Senegalese expert in humanitarian aid.

The millions of deaths from the pandemic are "neither normal nor acceptable" but "unfortunately there is little evidence that we are learning the right lessons from this pandemic," he adds.

Covid-19: vaccination around the world AFP

The GPMB said in 2020 that the pandemic had already revealed how little the world had prepared for such disasters, despite warnings that large epidemics were inevitable.

© 2021 AFP