[ti:Leaders at UN General Assembly Talk of Vaccine Inequality]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:01.80]Sharing COVID-19 vaccines has been a major subject of discussion
[00:07.52]at this year's United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.
[00:13.92]South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa,
[00:17.36]Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Deby
[00:21.04]and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni
[00:25.12]were among those who spoke on Thursday.
[00:29.16]Most of Thursday's speakers were leaders from African nations.
[00:34.36]Their countries are not able to get enough vaccines to protect their people.
[00:40.20]Ramaphosa said that it is "an indictment on humanity"
[00:44.64]that more than 82 percent of the world's COVID-19 vaccines
[00:49.48]are in the hands of rich countries.
[00:52.84]He said less than one percent have gone to poor countries.
[00:57.60]He added, "nnless we address this as a matter of urgency,
[01:01.68]the pandemic will last much longer"
[01:04.36]as new forms of the virus appear.
[01:08.40]The struggle to contain the coronavirus
[01:11.16]also has been a big issue in speeches given at the U.N. meeting.
[01:16.68]In a statement to the U.N., Mokgweetsi Masisi,
[01:20.32]the President of Botswana said:
[01:23.76]"Botswana shares the frustration by many
[01:27.00]and strongly supports the call for the vaccines to be treated
[01:30.84]as a global public good."
[01:34.08]On Wednesday, American President Joe Biden announced
[01:38.04]that the U.S. would buy 1 billion
[01:40.92]of Pfizer's COVID-19 shots to share with the world.
[01:46.16]That was two times the amount of his earlier promise.
[01:50.32]He also said he supported a goal of vaccinating 70 percent
[01:55.40]of the world's population within the next year.
[01:59.80]Some countries have had vaccines
[02:02.00]widely available to their populations for months.
[02:06.28]But other countries have struggled to get supplies.
[02:09.80]The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
[02:13.52]reports that four percent of the population is fully vaccinated.
[02:19.40]Ramaphosa took part in a meeting Wednesday
[02:22.36]that was called by Biden to talk about increasing efforts
[02:26.24]to vaccinate people all over the world.
[02:29.84]At that meeting, Biden announced the U.S. deal
[02:32.96]to buy an additional 500 million doses
[02:36.32]of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to send to other countries.
[02:42.36]"Of the around 6 billion vaccine doses administered worldwide,
[02:47.24]only two percent of these have been administered in Africa,
[02:52.24]a continent of more than 1.2 billion people," Ramaphosa said.
[02:57.84]"This is unjust and immoral."
[03:00.92]Because of the coronavirus pandemic,
[03:03.68]a number of world leaders made video presentations
[03:07.28]instead of traveling to New York to speak in person.
[03:11.72]About half of Thursday's speeches were by video.
[03:15.72]Speaking on video from Havana,
[03:18.80]Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel
[03:21.52]denounced the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
[03:25.60]He said it has been made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[03:31.28]Speaking at the U.N., Panama's President Laurentino Cortizo said
[03:36.12]his country has vaccinated more than half of its population.
[03:41.04]"Thanks to this, we are only weeks away
[03:43.56]from reaching herd immunity," he said.
[03:47.72]Cortizo asked for the support of the international community
[03:51.60]to deal with the large number of migrants passing through his nation.
[03:56.84]Many of the migrants are from Africa and the Caribbean islands.
[04:02.52]Cortizo said, "This is everyone's responsibility."
[04:06.44]I'm Jill Robbins. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM