The President, Nana Akufo-Addo has joined other world leaders in signing the UNAIDS Public Letter on People’s Vaccine, a campaign calling for the COVID-19 vaccine to become accessible to all when developed.
The President believes it is necessary that “all people everywhere have access to the vaccine when one becomes available.”
Other signatories of the letter include Maky Sall; President of Senegal and Pakistan Prime Minister; Imran Khan.
Some persons have expressed concerns over people in rich countries having quicker access to the vaccine than those in poor countries.
The world leaders thus argued in the open letter that any vaccine against COVID-19 should be free and made accessible at no cost to people everywhere.
“Governments and international partners must unite around a global guarantee which ensures that, when a safe and effective vaccine is developed, it is produced rapidly at scale and made available for all people, in all countries, free of charge. The same applies to all treatments, diagnostics, and other technologies for COVID-19,” the letter said.
The letter follows a call by vaccine producers for various governments to invest billions of dollars in large scale production of vaccines.
Development of a vaccine
More than 100 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are currently being developed.
In the UK, trials on more than 1,000 human volunteers are taking place through the University of Oxford.
The BBC recently reported that a vaccine against coronavirus appears to have provided protection against Covid-19 in six rhesus macaque monkeys.
