We are writing to you on behalf of the millions around the world struggling to survive the COVID-19 pandemic far from home. Some have been forced to flee wars, conflict, persecution and human rights violations. Others are on the move to escape socioeconomic hardship or the consequences of climate change.<\/p>\n
As strangers far from home, many are at risk of exclusion or neglect. Owing to their living situation, many face barriers accessing vaccinations, testing, treatment, care, and even reliable information.<\/p>\n
It is a stark reality that some of the world\u2019s poorest countries shoulder the greatest responsibility for supporting displaced people and other people on the move. They need a reliable and adequate supply of vaccines and other critical supplies to stabilize their fragile and over-burdened health systems, to help save the lives of their citizens, migrants, as well as refugees and other displaced people they host.<\/p>\n
Yet the current vaccine equity gap between wealthier and low resource countries demonstrates a disregard for the lives of the world\u2019s poorest and most vulnerable. For every 100 people in high-income countries, 133 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered, while in low-income countries, only four doses per 100 people have been administered.<\/p>\n
Vaccine inequity is costing lives every day, and continues to place everyone at risk. History and science make it clear: coordinated action with equitable access to public health resources is the only way to face down a global public health scourge like COVID-19. We need a strong, collective push to save lives, reduce suffering and ensure a sustainable global recovery.<\/p>\n
And while vaccines are a very powerful tool, they\u2019re not the only tool. Tests are needed to know where the virus is, treatments including dexamethasone and medical oxygen are needed to save lives, and tailored public health measures are needed to prevent transmission.<\/p>\n
As the leaders of the world\u2019s largest economies, you have the power and responsibility to help stem the pandemic by expanding access to vaccines and other tools for the people and places where these are in shortest supply.<\/p>\n
We welcome the fact that this weekend\u2019s summit in Rome will call for \u201ccourage and ambition\u201d to tackle some of the greatest challenges of our time, and specifically the need to recover from the pandemic and overcome inequality. We collectively call on you, G20 leaders, to commit to:<\/p>\n
1. Increase vaccine supplies for the world\u2019s poorest:\u00a0We call on the world\u2019s leading economies to fully fund and implement the Strategic Plan and Budget for the ACT Accelerator, and to distribute vaccines, tests and treatments where they are needed most. If we are to recover from the pandemic, we must\u2014at a minimum\u2014meet the targets to vaccinate 40% of the world\u2019s population by year-end\u2014 and 70% globally by mid-2022.<\/p>\n
2. Ensure access to vaccines for all people on the move:\u00a0We call on every country to ensure that everyone on its territory regardless of legal status\u2014including refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, asylum-seekers, and others on the move\u2014have access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatment for COVID-19. They should adopt concrete measures to remove barriers to vaccination for everyone on their territory\u2014for example the need for specific documents, geographical barriers,\u00a0the requirement in some settings that health care seekers are reported to immigration authorities, high fees\u2014and fight misinformation that fuels vaccine hesitancy.<\/p>\n
3. Support low- and middle-income countries to combat COVID-19 with all available means: Low- and middle-income countries need comprehensive support\u2014financial, political, technical, logistical\u2014to vaccinate people quickly and effectively to expand access to tests and treatments, to implement tailored public health measures, and to build more resilient health systems to prepare for, prevent, detect and respond rapidly to future health emergencies.
\nWe urge you to take swift action to ease the pandemic\u2019s devastating human toll.<\/p>\n
Filippo Grandi<\/strong> Ant\u00f3nio Vitorino<\/strong> Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus<\/strong> We are writing to you on behalf of the millions around the world struggling to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":331235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nUN High Commissioner for Refugees\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nDirector General, International Organization for Migration<\/p>\n
\nDirector-General, World Health Organization<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"