THE failure to ensure equal access to Covid vaccines across the globe is a “disgrace” which “bodes badly” for tackling issues such as the climate crisis, an SNP MP has warned.
Speaking at a fringe event at the SNP conference, Dr Philippa Whitford, who chairs the House of Commons All-Party Parliamentary Group on Vaccinations, said pledges by the international community to face the Covid pandemic together had “utterly failed”.
She said the Covax initiative which was set up early in 2020 to ensure equitable access to Covid tests, treatments and vaccines had only been of “limited help”.
Whitford said: “What we had in early 2020 was great warm words from the international community about facing a global crisis together and having a global response to a global crisis.
“That is precisely what we didn’t see – the international community utterly failed because we didn’t take a global response.”
She added: “People in the global south didn’t have access to testing either – so if you follow WHO data on cases you would be misled to think Africa is doing really well.
“No, Africa isn’t diagnosing Covid because they don’t have tests. There are hospitals which didn’t have the PPE – when you see the PPE challenges that were in Europe and the UK, they didn’t have PPE.
“So their staff were being exposed to Covid in really poor circumstances.”
Whitford said despite it being in the third year of the pandemic, low-income countries had “barely made it into double figures” of people who had received two Covid vaccines and only 38% of healthcare workers in those areas had been vaccinated.
“In contrast, particularly in the first six months when the vaccines became available, 80% of them were being bought up by the wealthiest countries in the world,” she said.
“To be honest I feel we disgraced ourselves and what depresses me the most is how badly that bodes for tackling climate change and the climate crisis, as we categorically need to take a global response to a global crisis.”
When asked how an independent Scotland should approach the issue, Whitford said the Scottish Government is already forging “close relationships” with countries such as Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
She added: “I think that is the way to go – if every one of the wealthy countries was to adopt for whatever reason countries they have a connection with and not just throw money into a big pot but actually work in that more holistic way, so that we would have exchanges, we would arrange visas for people to come here, we can send people there.
“You then are starting to look at what the underlying issues are, what the training is and that is something in Scotland we do have a vision of being outward looking, but that is something I would like to see.
“We have the National Patient Safety Programme in Scotland, we could be helping introduce that in other places.
“To me a little bit too much international development is 'we will put money in a big pot and that will solve everything', rather than actually sharing knowledge.
“For Scotland I would like to see an in-depth focus on a small number of countries and trying to get other countries to do the same.”
