The European Union and the United States need to provide African countries with vaccines, to prevent exacerbation of global inequality, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
“The African continent needs to immunize all its caregivers to allow its health system to resist. I appeal: Europeans, Americans, we can provide Africa with the 13 million doses of vaccines needed. Let us be united, let us be efficient,” Macron wrote in a Twitter post.
The 13 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccines account for up to 0,43% of the bloc’s current vaccine supplies and would mark an effort to avoid an unprecedented acceleration of global inequality, the French President told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday
Le continent africain a besoin de vacciner tous ses soignants pour permettre à son système de santé de résister. Je lance un appel : Européens, Américains, nous pouvons fournir à l'Afrique les 13 millions de doses de vaccins nécessaires. Soyons solidaires, soyons efficaces. pic.twitter.com/PJ836fvC8e
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) February 19, 2021
“We are allowing the idea to take hold that hundreds of millions of vaccines are being given in rich countries and that we are not starting in poor countries,” Macron said.
Allocating between “3-5 percent of the vaccines we have in stock to Africa…won’t delay [our vaccination effort] by a single day, given the way we use our doses,” he added, referring to France, which is going to transfer the jabs jabs either for free or at a very low price, even if other Western countries do not follow, according to a spokesperson from the Elysee Palace.
His comments came ahead of a scheduled G7 summit on Friday, led by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.