The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned Germany and the other industrialized countries against selfishness in their corona vaccination strategy. “Some countries have way too much vaccine, others have nothing,” criticized OECD Secretary General José Ángel Gurría in an interview with the newspaper “Die Welt” on Monday. He asked, “Why don’t we think of the five billion people in poorer countries?”
The former Mexican foreign and finance minister demanded that the vaccine should be distributed more fairly. “That would be wise for everyone. This virus will not be defeated until it is defeated all over the world.”
The United States bought 800 million doses of vaccine for a population of just over 300 million, Gurría said. Canada has secured 300 million vaccine doses for 40 million people. Germany, too, is striving to acquire more vaccine doses than it has residents, although the disparity is less than in the USA and Canada.
The corona pandemic is “clearly the biggest multilateral problem that mankind has ever faced,” said the OECD Secretary General. Nevertheless, there have been “dramatic examples” of how the crisis has so far been fought on a purely national level. With the upcoming vaccinations “we have another chance to think about the bigger picture and to be more generous”. Gurría is leaving office in May after 14 years at the helm of the OECD.
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