Omicron COVID-19: Clarion Call for Vaccine Equity, Says Okonjo-Iweala

Obinna Chima

The Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday said the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has raised fresh fears about the pandemic globally, was a, “clarion call to all of us that we should now move speedily to agree on the response to the pandemic,” in order to end vaccine inequity.

She said this while responding to questions from journalists during a virtual media briefing on the postponement of a ministerial level meet that was previously scheduled to hold from yesterday in Geneva, but was called off due to an outbreak of a new strain of the COVID-19 virus.

The meeting which is a gathering of the WTO’s highest decision-making body, represents a critical moment for the global trade body.

“We need to use all tools at our disposal to make sure we solve this problem of access to vaccines. This is a call for us to move faster and that is why we are not waiting for a Ministerial Conference, we are just going to push along. We have one goal in common, which is to save lives. We need to use all tools at our disposal to make sure we solve this problem of access to vaccines,” she added.

According to the former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, lives and economic recoveries were at stake.

However, the WTO boss said work on an intellectual-property waiver aimed at widening vaccine access in poor countries would continue despite the postponement of the ministerial meeting.

“The postponement was a very difficult decision to make. Once several countries had been banned from flying into Europe, on equity ground our members felt it wasn’t appropriate that the meeting should go on when most of the delegations wouldn’t be able to participate. As you know, these negotiations involved some side meetings, discussions, bilaterals and some trading of ideas. So, this was one of the reasons.

“The speed with which governments across the world were reacting was a caution and as you know, we take directive from the Swiss health rules, the WTO follows the guidelines put by the Swiss government. So, we didn’t was to endanger the health of anybody. So, we took the decision to postpone on equity ground so as not to exclude countries who could not come in.

“So, it was quite astonishing to read some headlines that the postponement was a good excuse for a meeting that would not have resulted into anything. I totally disagree with that point of view. Really, the key thing I want to convey is that we have to change our mode of operating. We don’t know the trajectory of this pandemic. It is incumbent on us to keep working,” she explained.

Over the past year WTO members have tried and failed to engage on a proposal from India and South Africa to waive key aspects of the organisation’s Intellectual Property rules for vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.

While the United States China and scores of other nations support the idea in principle, the European Union, the UK and Switzerland oppose an IP waiver that they say would do little to expand access to vaccines in the developing world.

The WTO should resume its “meeting as soon as it is possible health-wise and travel-wise,” she said.

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus carries a very high global risk of surges, WHO warned on Monday, as more countries reported cases, prompting border closures and reviving worries about the economic recovery from a two-year pandemic.

Scientists have said it could take weeks to understand the severity of the new variant. Its emergence has caused a strong global reaction, with countries imposing travel curbs and other restrictions, worried that it could spread fast even in vaccinated populations.