Brazil Opts Out of WHO Alliance on Access to Vaccines and Treatment

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The initiative aims to expedite the production and distribution of treatments to tackle the pandemic and ensure the availability of a vaccine on the market in record time, with a fund of over R$45 billion.

But Brazil, which has historically led the way in access to medications, did not take part, as its political summit and a portion of the government were unaware of the mega-event, an indication of the irrelevance recently earned by Brazilian diplomacy.

The meeting, coordinated by WHO, is being headed by Emmanuel Macron, the French President, with the participation of Bill Gates and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

The event marks a commitment that any treatment or vaccine developed will be the subject of an international effort to make it available to all countries. A US$8 billion fund was released to finance drug distribution and production, as well as to strengthen public systems and the overall response to the disease.

When opening the event, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, said the world cannot risk repeating past mistakes of failing to ensure the distribution of a vaccine once it is on the market. “We cannot let this happen again,” he said. The meeting also included the world’s major pharmaceutical companies.

In his speech, Macron stressed that the development of this project represents an “accelerator to fight against coronavirus”. According to him, some of the main players “decided to act specifically to build an unprecedented partnership”. His government has clearly expressed its discontent with Jair Bolsonaro’s behavior in other international cooperation issues since mid-2019.

According to the French president, the fight against the pandemic requires a central role for the WHO, supporting public health systems, testing, and treatment. But he pointed out that the project’s main goal is to expedite the introduction of a vaccine. According to him, there will be no excuse for a vaccine to remain only in the country where it was first developed.

Macron clearly stated that he hopes that the initiative will “reconcile the Americans and the Chinese”, now in open conflict.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed “WHO’s leading role”. “We will only succeed if we act together,” she said. She pledged investments to produce a vaccine and assured that the product will be a common good for humanity. But she pointed out that the world needs more funding to increase potential production.

Von der Leyen said that there will be a conference on May 4th to raise over US$8 billion to fight the crisis. In her opinion, the vaccine will be a “universal public good” and she believes it will establish a “world coalition”.

Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, called for treatment and vaccines to reach all parts of the world and stated that fighting the virus “will require the greatest investment in health in history”. “We are fighting the battle of our lives”, declared the Portuguese diplomat, urging that politics be set aside.

He followed the same approach of addressing the vaccine as a “global public asset” and as a lesson for other areas, such as the environment.

The issue of access to drugs has traditionally been a flagship of different Brazilian governments. Earlier in the century, together with the French government, Brazil established a system to provide access to medication to the most impoverished, the UNITAID. However, this time Paris took over the issue without the presence of the Brazilian government.

The initiative also seeks to fill the political void left by the G-20, whose member governments were unable to reach an agreement on how to address the pandemic. On Sunday, a meeting of the group’s health ministers came to a close without an agreement after the US government vetoed the final declaration acknowledging WHO’s role.

Support for multilateralism

During the meeting, the tone employed was one of unreserved support for multilateralism, a position that is not shared by the Itamaraty [Brazil’s Foreign Office].

The Latin American delegation in the alliance was represented by Carlos Alvarado, president of Costa Rica. He called for support to multilateralism. “The world looks to its leaders for action,” he said.

Giuseppe Conte, president of Italy’s Council of Ministers, dedicated the alliance to those who “lost their lives fighting a pandemic”. “Together, we will succeed,” he said.

Pedro Sanches, president of the Spanish government, used his time to call for the “strengthening of multilateralism”. “There is no other way,” he said.

The heads of state and government of Uganda, Malaysia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Norway, and the United Kingdom also took the floor.

WHO rebuts Bolsonaro

On Friday, WHO also rebutted President Jair Bolsonaro’s criticism of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the organization. The Brazilian’s comments, according to diplomats in Geneva, deepened the unease between the organization and the Brazilian government.

On Thursday evening, in a live broadcast, Bolsonaro tried to explain why he has been ignoring WHO. “People are talking so much about following WHO, right? Is the WHO director a doctor? He’s not a doctor. It’s the same thing if the chairman of Caixa (Savings Bank) were not from his field. It makes no sense. So the WHO director is not a doctor,” he said.

Tedros has a degree in biology, a Masters in Infectious Disease Immunology from the University of London, a Ph.D. in Health from the University of Nottingham, and is widely regarded as an expert in operations and leadership in emergency response to epidemics. Tedros also served as Ethiopia’s Minister of Health between 2005 and 2012.

A WHO spokesperson came out in Tedros’ defense. “I invite you to check Dr. Tedros’s biography,” said the representative, pointing out the Ethiopian’s “long experience” in relation to public health.

In addition, WHO points out that the organization counts on “some of the best experts” and reiterates that “WHO’s strength is to be able to “rely on thousands of experts to help us guide our work”.

The decision to declare a global emergency, as occurred on January 30th, was taken based on the advice of a group of scientists, some of the greatest experts in health emergencies. A week before the declaration, these scientists met and failed to reach a consensus. Accordingly, Tedros did not declare an emergency.

In addition to the group, dozens of other experts were trained internally at WHO to respond to the crisis by devising strategies. Among them was the president of Fiocruz, Brazil’s premier public health authority.

But the Brazilian attacks are not isolated events. This week, Chancellor Ernesto Araújo published a text in which he warned of the risk that a communist plan had been designed to use the pandemic to strengthen international organizations and, through them, influence the world. Among the organizations at the tip of this purported strategy is WHO, according to the Foreign Minister.

Likewise, Bolsonaro’s manipulation of Tedros’ statements to justify his own policy, which ran counter to WHO’s suggestions, caused unease.

This week, the refusal of the Brazilian government to join the co-sponsors of a resolution at the UN which, among other things, recognized the central role of the Health agency in the response against the pandemic, drew WHO’s attention. The move came after pressure from the US government to distance its allies – Brazil, Hungary, and Australia – from the initiative proposed and supported by 179 of the 193 UN member states.

In a reaction at the government, WHO’s director of operations, Michael Ryan, used Bolsonaro’s dismissal of Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta to express his gratitude to the then Minister for his services and stressed the need for governments to act on “evidence”.

Brazil also refrained from questioning the suspension of money by the Americans to WHO, which is expected to impact dozens of health programs worldwide.

Ironically, the Brazilian attacks occurred at the same time as the WHO office for the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization, signed an agreement to ship ten million Covid-19 diagnostics tests purchased by the Brazilian Ministry of Health through the organization’s Strategic Fund.

Source: UOL