WHO calls for universal access to vaccines in global COVID-19 plan

All new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments against the new coronavirus must be made equally available to everyone worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday as it outlined an international initiative to accelerate work to fight COVID-19.

Launching what he called a "landmark collaboration" between countries across the world to speed the development of effective drugs, tests and vaccines to prevent and treat COVID-19, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus was a "common threat, which we can only defeat with a common approach."

He added: "Experience has told us that even when tools are available they have not been equally available to all. We cannot allow that to happen," Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual conference with world leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

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