COVID-19: UK calls for temporary ceasefires to allow vaccine rollout in world's war zones
Dominic Raab will use a UN Security Council meeting to urge world leaders to agree a resolution for negotiated vaccine ceasefires.
Wednesday 17 February 2021 11:32, UK
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is calling for a UN resolution for ceasefires across the globe to allow those living in war zones to get COVID vaccines.
As he chairs a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, Mr Raab will urge world leaders to agree a resolution for negotiated vaccine ceasefires.
The foreign secretary believes there is a "moral duty to act" in order to prevent more than 160 million people being excluded from vaccines because of instability and conflict, including in Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Mr Raab will warn that allowing COVID-19 to spread in areas where there is no vaccination programme could allow new coronavirus variants to take hold and risk further waves of infections across the world.
The plan for temporary ceasefires would allow charities and healthcare workers to safely provide jabs to people living in active conflict zones, as well as refugees.
The foreign secretary will also urge nations to support equitable access to vaccines so that the most vulnerable people can be offered protection from the virus.
He will underline how barriers such as vaccine storage, delays in regulatory approval and the management of complex supply chains could hinder the rollout of COVID jabs in some countries.
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, Mr Raab said: "Global vaccination coverage is essential to beating coronavirus.
"That is why the UK is calling for a vaccination ceasefire to allow COVID-19 vaccines to reach people living in conflict zones and for a greater global team effort to deliver equitable access.
"We have a moral duty to act, and a strategic necessity to come together to defeat this virus."
Ceasefires have been used to vaccinate vulnerable communities in the past.
In 2001, a two-day pause in fighting in Afghanistan gave 35,000 health workers and volunteers the opportunity to vaccinate 5.7 million children under five against polio.
Sam Nadel, head of policy and advocacy at Oxfam, described the COVID vaccination ceasefire call as "a welcome step".
"The lack of progress towards peace is leaving millions of people suffering from the impacts of war and the global COVID-19 pandemic, whilst limiting humanitarian access to extremely vulnerable communities," he said.
"However, without a massive increase in vaccine production, countries enduring conflict will not get enough doses of COVID-19 vaccines for everyone that needs one.
"The UK government must unblock the supply problem by insisting the vaccine science and know-how is no longer treated as the private property of a handful of pharmaceutical corporations but shared with qualified manufacturers around the world, so that production can be urgently scaled up."
The UK has pledged up to £1.3bn of overseas aid in the battle against coronavirus, including £829m for the development and distribution of vaccines, treatments and tests.
A well-intentioned idea is that it is unlikely to work
Analysis by John Sparks, Africa correspondent
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab's call today for 'vaccine ceasefires' in the world's trouble-spots demonstrates an official broadening of horizons at a time when developed countries - like the UK - have been largely focused on vaccinating their own citizens.
Alive to the maxim that 'no-one is safe until everyone is safe', the foreign secretary will urge members of the UN Secretary Council to back a resolution seeking temporary ceasefires in places like Yemen and South Sudan which would then enable the distribution of the vaccines.
The problem with this well-intentioned idea is that it is unlikely to work. IS-linked groups in central African states, Nigeria and Mozambique are unlikely to take much notice of what Mr Raab - or the UN Security Council - have to say. And the world's wealthiest countries are not going to dispatch troops to oversee local inoculation programmes.
However, the foreign secretary's call for a more equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines around the world is an important message that requires urgent and effective international attention.
In countries like Mozambique, where Sky's Africa team recently travelled, no one has had a vaccine - not even front-line heath care workers. In South Africa, which boasts the most advanced economy on the continent, they have just started vaccinating healthcare workers (and President Cyril Ramaphosa) today.
The contrast with Britain is stark, where middle-aged people are now receiving the first jab and the total number of people who have been provided with a vaccine tops 15 million.
That is the sort of scenario that healthcare workers in Mozambique can only dream of - and we were told that it would take up to five years in this impoverished country of 30 million to roll-out a comprehensive, national-wide inoculation programme.
We should all be concerned. By the time people have received a vaccination in this sprawling southern African nation, the shape-shifting coronavirus may have mutated into another, highly contagious strain - and that is a threat to them and us.