Global Religious Leaders and Director General of WHO Stress Urgency of Vaccine Equity

Religions for Peace senior religious leaders concluded a High-Level Dialogue with the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and his team, in Geneva, today.

Religions for Peace leaders, representing all faiths and religious institutions from across the world, shared their concerns and their commitments to continue to work together to support WHO’s efforts around the world, particularly around vaccine equity.

Among the many critical interventions made by Religions for Peace’s global leaders, were the following:

• Stressed that the pandemic highlighted the intersectionality and interdependence between health of planet and environment, the values driving institutions and individuals alike; and the fundamental interlinked multiple inequities faced;
• Noted the value of multi-religious and multi-stakeholder collaboration in the face of the pandemic as tipping points to the success of the mass vaccination efforts required for the safety of one and all;
• Highlighted their respective efforts to bridge the gaps between science and faith and to serve many communities, especially the most vulnerable;
• Decried detractors of vaccination efforts within faith communities; and urged WHO to address more deliberately some of the fear mongering created by detractors;
• Emphasized the necessity of addressing mental health and trauma, as well as the specific vulnerabilities of migrant and refugee needs, children’s health, and women’s added burdens;
• Pointed to the need to take into account the speed of vaccine equity itself as an imperative.

The interventions were very well-received by His Excellency Dr. Tedros. In his concluding comments, after listening to the nearly 20 faith leaders, Dr. Tedros made it clear that he wishes to formalise the relationship and partnership with Religions for Peace to work on the many fronts in which religious leaders have a distinct advantage: moral voice to urge accountability by decision makers; compassion and inclusion of a whole of society approach which also takes into account the spiritual, mental, and psycho-social care for pandemic-induced trauma; and actual health care services reaching hard-to-reach vulnerable communities.

Dr. Tedros made a concrete, heartfelt ask of the religious leaders for their interventions to address the specific aspects of mental health, acknowledging that “all populations suffer traumas after this kind of upheaval, and this is the case of the pandemic.”

Dr. Tedros’ point is clear: if we cannot produce more vaccines, then we cannot ensure access to all. If we cannot ensure access to all, then we remain, even in rich nations, imminently threatened by more vociferous mutations of the virus. Waiving intellectual property rights would therefore make a difference between making the vaccine available to all populations as quickly as possible in order to bring the pandemic under control and end the suffering faced by so many, rich and poor alike.