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Opinion | Vaccinating the world against coronavirus requires helping the most vulnerable countries
- Delays in vaccination roll-outs in developing countries are deepening global inequality and leaving hundreds of millions at risk
- Countries with sufficient supplies for their most vulnerable people must release additional doses to developing nations
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The Covid-19 pandemic will not truly end until everyone has access to vaccines, including people in the poorest countries. Worldwide vaccination offers the best hope for stopping the spread of infections, saving lives and protecting livelihoods.
People cannot reach their potential until they can again study, work, travel and socialise in the confident knowledge that they are safe from Covid-19.
Distributing vaccines more widely is thus an urgent necessity. The pandemic has worsened inequality by hitting the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest. In developing countries, women, children, the poor and informal-sector workers have paid an extremely high price as Covid-19 took away livelihoods, closed classrooms and prevented urgent social spending.
Delays in starting vaccination roll-outs in developing countries are deepening global inequality and leaving hundreds of millions of elderly and vulnerable people at risk.
I continue to urge countries with sufficient vaccine supplies for their most vulnerable citizens to release their additional doses as soon as possible to developing countries that have delivery programmes in place.
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