Health minister in Rome: G20 want vaccination offensive

The corona pandemic will probably not have been the last the world has to face. In Rome, the G20 health ministers discuss what can be done better in the future. At the end of the day the “Pact of Rome” should be in place.

“It was a very positive day,” said Italy’s Minister of Health Roberto Speranza right at the beginning of the G20 deliberations when he appeared before the press. After this first day of the meeting of the G20 health ministers, he cannot yet report any concrete results. But Speranza is very confident that in the end it will be possible to conclude a “Pact of Rome”.

And that should contain some essential points, says Speranza, listing: “To invest more in our health systems. To try to announce a very significant change of course. That means the idea that a person is treated when he is bad – it doesn’t matter. what her economic situation is, no matter where she was born and no matter what skin color she is. “

Vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate!

In terms of the corona pandemic, such a pact would mean one thing above all from Speranza’s point of view: vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate. All over the world: “The task in this pact of Rome, on which we are working, is to create conditions in which vaccinations are a right of everyone – not a privilege of a few.”

At least with Germany, Speranza and Italy, the host country of the meeting, should have few problems with this aspect. Because Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn had already emphasized on the sidelines of the meeting: They want to vaccinate the world, also out of their own national interest: “This pandemic is only over when it is over all over the world. Otherwise, variants can arise, Mutations in countries that then reach Germany again, reach Europe and lead to problems, “said Spahn.

The goal must be to have vaccinated at least 40 percent of the world’s population by the end of the year, said Spahn. And he announced: “Germany will make 100 million cans available for this by the end of the year. That is as much as we ourselves have inoculated in our country so far.”

Spahn relies on the WHO

But this meeting of health ministers is not just about Covid-19. One focus is: How can we better deal with pandemics in the future – or avoid them entirely? Germany relies heavily on the World Health Organization in this regard.

In this context, Spahn calls for the states to be more binding. On the one hand, this means: enough money for the WHO: “But it is also a matter of the countries cooperating in the event of an outbreak, that they are transparent, that they grant WHO access. And countries that do not cooperate must then also Sanctions count. For example, travel restrictions for citizens, “says Spahn.

There could still be intense discussions about this point at this meeting: China, i.e. the state in which the first Covid 19 cases became known, also belongs to the G20. The People’s Republic has so far shown little cooperation in the WHO’s search for the origin of the corona pandemic.