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Jokowi calls for fair access to vaccine in UNGA speech
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resident Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called for equal access to future vaccines and has urged countries to work together and set aside rivalries to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in his first-ever address to the United Nations General Assembly.
World leaders have submitted prerecorded messages to be played at the annual assembly, which began on Tuesday, as confirmed infections worldwide have surpassed 31.7 million and more than 975,000 people have died, according to Worldometer.
The president urged nations to cooperate and promoted “a win-win approach” to tackling both the health and socioeconomic effects of the pandemic.
“A vaccine will be a game changer in the war against the pandemic. We need to work together to ensure that all countries have equal access to a safe vaccine at affordable prices,” the President said in his statement to the assembly, which aired on Wednesday morning Jakarta time.
The message echoed concerns expressed by other countries at the assembly. Many nations sought assurances from superpowers that they would commit to keeping access to future vaccines open, fearing rising vaccine nationalism.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said the UN was working to ensure that treatments and therapies remained global public goods and that future vaccines would be available and affordable everywhere.
“Yet some countries are reportedly making side deals exclusively for their own populations,” Guterres said. “Such ‘vaccinationalism’ is not only unfair, it is self-defeating. None of us is safe until all of us are safe. Likewise, economies cannot run with a runaway pandemic.”
More than 170 candidate vaccines for COVID-19 are being tested worldwide, but only 9 have reached phase 3 safety trials. Most of them are being developed by American and Chinese vaccine producers.
In his address, United States President Donald Trump provided little assurance about future vaccines while blaming China for the pandemic and calling on the UN to hold Beijing accountable for its actions.
“Thanks to our efforts, three vaccines are in the final stage of clinical trials. We are mass producing them in advance so they can be delivered immediately upon arrival. We will distribute a vaccine,” Trump claimed in his address. “We will defeat the virus. We will end the pandemic, and we will enter a new era of unprecedented prosperity, cooperation and peace.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said his country was also developing several COVID-19 vaccines that were in phase 3 clinical trials.
"When their development is complete and they are ready for use, these vaccines will be made a global public good and will be provided to other developing countries on a priority basis," Xi said in prerecorded remarks.
While the vaccine race has accentuated geopolitical rivalries, such as between the US and China, there is no guarantee that any of the vaccine candidates will be safe and effective for widespread use.
On Monday, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to countries to use the COVAX Facility, saying it would “enable a globally coordinated rollout for the greatest possible impact” and ensure that the race for vaccines was “a collaboration, not a contest”.
“We have no guarantee that any single vaccine now in development will work. The more candidates we test, the higher the chance we will have a safe and efficacious vaccine,” he said, according to a recording on UNTV.
“The fastest route to ending the pandemic and accelerating the global economic recovery is to ensure that some people are vaccinated in all countries, not all people in some countries.”
COVAX is a global COVID-19 vaccine allocation plan that aims to help purchase and fairly distribute a future vaccine.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi recently said the government was employing bilateral and multilateral methods to secure potential future vaccine supplies. She noted that Indonesia was trying to balance efforts to gain early access to possible vaccines with contributions to the availability of a global vaccine.
Bilaterally, Indonesia has secured massive supplies of candidate vaccines from producers from China and the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, it is participating in the COVAX Facility.
The initiative is led by the WHO, vaccine alliance GAVI, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
“We are one of the countries categorized in COVAX 92, which [means we] have been promised access to vaccines for 20 percent of Indonesia's population, […] that means we will get about 106-107 million additional doses because each person gets two injections,” Retno told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Additionally, Indonesia is seeking cooperation with the CEPI, which is currently conducting due diligence on state pharmaceuticals firm PT Bio Farma.
“If due diligence results are good and Bio Farma is trusted to manufacture a global vaccine, it means it will open the door for Bio Farma to enter the world network,” the minister said in an exclusive interview.
“And this is also an entry point for Indonesia to contribute to the supply of world vaccines.”
Indonesia is hoping to contribute its own candidate vaccine, called the Merah Putih, which is still in the exploratory stage.
“Once we have developed our own vaccine – I can’t say when, probably in 2021 or 2022 – we also want to contribute,” Retno said.
