BROOKLYN, NY– Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, has called for the urgent and equitable release of COVID-19 vaccines, especially for small states.
He was speaking at a Permanent Council meeting after a presentation by representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) that he described as “chilling.”
Sir Ronald told the representatives of 33 countries that tourism-dependent Caribbean countries, such as Antigua and Barbuda, have been among the hardest hit.
“In the tourism-dependent countries such as mine, the economic situation is dire,” he said, adding that Caribbean countries “have neither the financial resources nor the capacity to continue this desperate fight without relief.”
“Unlike developed countries, our central banks cannot print money to provide relief and stimulus. We need vaccines to inoculate our people and provide some level of immunity. Yet, all that we have been able to secure is small numbers that will not immunize more than 10 percent of our populations.”
Sir Ronald quoted United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in saying that “what is needed now is the largest and most rapid deployment of vaccines the world has ever seen, reaching everybody, everywhere.”
Pointing out that COVID-19 vaccines are quickly reaching high-income countries. At the same time, the world’s poorest have none at all; the Ambassador called on OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro to take “a front and center position in advocating this matter,” and he urged the member states of the OAS to support him “by all means necessary.”
“Hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake,” he insisted.
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