WASHINGTON, D.C. – Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Wednesday said that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has wrecked the economies of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping as the United States announced it is doubling its purchase of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots to share with the world to one billion doses.
President Joe Biden listening to world leaders during the Global COVID-19 SummitBrowne, who is also the chairman of the 15-member grouping, told the virtual Global COVID-19 Summit organized by the White House, that in in some Caribbean countries, more than 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been lost; unemployment has risen; poverty has expanded and demands on the state have multiplied, even as revenues have declined steeply.
He told the summit, taking place on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly UNGA) that recovering from the economic effects of COVID-19 will be protracted, because hard won economic progress has been greatly reversed.
“Therefore, building back will be longer and harder for CARICOM countries, than it will be in larger economies with greater resources. Thousands of our people have been infected and thousands have died, many who had not yet begun to enjoy life, and others who had much to contribute.”
Browne said that the disease must be stopped, and nations must act together to build a stronger, better, and more prosperous world.
He said CARICOM governments are committed to a global drive to inoculate 70 per cent of the world’s population by September 2022, “including in our own countries.
“From the onset of the pandemic, our 15 governments took joint approaches to tackling the virus, including the pooling of our resources in the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), and negotiating together, access to vaccines from friendly countries, including the African Union and the United States. “
Browne said that the region is resolved to strengthen the Trinidad-based CARPHA, “and we will do so to the best of our ability, but we recognize that we will need more help from our international partners, to strengthen our infectious disease preparedness and response capabilities”.
He said in his own country, “we have made inoculations against COVID-19 mandatory for all public sector workers to protect the lives of all, including tourists who visit our shores.
“As a region, CARICOM is determined to overcome the baselessly flawed arguments, of those who promote resistance to vaccines despite the fact that, sadly, the number of hospitalizations and deaths are rising daily.
“We will continue to educate and inform our people at home to get vaccinated in their own interest and for the public good. Additionally, we continue to raise our voice internationally for the equitable distribution of vaccines at affordable prices and for the reduction in the price of COVID testing.”
The CARICOM chairman said that vaccines are a global good and they should not be a commodity for profit at the expense of human life.
“We have already enlarged our health facilities and we are resolved to continue doing so within our means, in building a resilient health infrastructure. None of us are safe until all of us are safe.
“Therefore, we will work unrelentingly for better, coordinated global planning and preparation for any future pandemic, including the provision of resources to poor and vulnerable countries, recognizing the imperative of collaboration for the safety of all peoples.”
Browne said that the Caribbean will cooperate with all governments “to protect our world and our human civilization, giving our young people the chance to live a safe, secure, and enjoyable life”.
In his address to the summit, President Joe Biden said Washington would be doubling its purchase of Pfizer’s COVID-19 shots to share with the world embracing the goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of the global population within the next year.
World leaders, aid groups and global health organizations are growing increasingly vocal about the slow pace of global vaccinations and the inequity of access to shots between residents of wealthier and poorer nations.
The US purchase will bring Washington’s the total vaccination commitment to more than 1.1 billion doses through 2022.
At least 160 million shots supplied by the U.S. have been distributed to more than 100 countries, including the Caribbean, representing more donations than the rest of the world combined.
“To beat the pandemic here, we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said, adding that with the new commitments “for every one shot we’ve administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world.”
Biden is also pressing other countries to do more in their vaccine-sharing plans.
“We need other high-income countries to deliver on their own ambitious vaccine donations and pledges,” Biden said, calling on wealthy countries to commit to donating, rather than selling the shots to poorer nations, and to provide them “with no political strings attached.”
More than 5.9 billion COVID-19 doses have been administered globally over the past year, representing about 43 per cent of the global population. But there are vast disparities in distribution, with many lower-income nations struggling to vaccinate even the most vulnerable share of their populations, and some yet to exceed two per cent to three per cent vaccination rates.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says only 15 per cent of promised donations of vaccines — from rich countries that have access to large quantities of them have been delivered.
It wants countries to fulfil their dose-sharing pledges “immediately” and make shots available for programs that benefit poor countries.
