As the search for a COVID vaccine continues, the House of Representatives
is urging the World Health Organization
(WHO) to ensure that all citizens of the world have equal access to the product.
Chairman of the House Committee on Healthcare Services ,Tanko Sununu, made the call when the newly appointed WHO
country representative Dr Walter Mulombo paid him a courtesy visit.
He said: ” must also thank WHO on its role in leading the world in the fight towards the containment of COVID 19 in policy making and the overall fight towards the containment of Covid 19.
“However we also going to call on WHO to always remember the principles of ethics especially now that we are moving towards a lot of multi centred, multinational clinical trial to ensure the principle of justice in medical researches is attained.
” By justice it means all human beings are equal and the benefits of it must be extended to all. So that there would be no segment of the world that would be used as a scapegoat in trying to achieve the goal. This is the only way that one would see WHO as being fair in its fight against Covid 19.”
The race to find a COVID 19 vaccine is nearing its end with several claims from scientists in some parts of the world.
The next phase is clinical trials of these products and therein the concerns lie.
There are those that believe vulnerable and disadvantaged citizens of the world are likely to be the lab rats during this next phase.
But beyond that there are fears that when the product is certified safe for human use, these same set of people will not get the same access to the product as citizens of advantaged countries.
It is only natural that these fears would come up in discussions when l the New Country Representative of the World Health Organization visited the legislative arm of government, for the first since his assumption of duty in Nigeria.
Chairman of the House Committee on Healthcare Services , Tanko Sununu, commending the role of WHO in containing the Covid-19 pandemic, stated that countries of the world must have unfettered access to the vaccine irrespective of their status in the comity of nations.
Representative Sununu also assured the WHO official of the readiness of the Houseto cooperate and work with WHO in rectifying all conventions to ensure universal health coverage.
Earlier the Country Rep. WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo, reiterated the commitment of the organization to work with Nigeria to convince policy makers to make decisions that would have the greatest impact.
Indeed a lot needimpacts to be done in the wake of the novel Coronavirus, especially now that the world is facing a financial crisis.
And the House has promised to provide the legislative framework to make this happen
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