AN International Development expert is insisting that no one country affected by COVID-19 can solve that pandemic on its own. Rather, there has to be cooperation among small and large countries alike to deal with this raging health crisis that has caused millions of infections and deaths around the world, including seven
deaths right here in Barbados.
That’s the message Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala left with her Barbadian audience during her presentation of the 45th Sir Winston Scott Memorial Lecture on Monday night.
Interview format for Sir Winston Scott lecture
The lecture took the form of an interview, which Cleviston Haynes, Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados did with Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, who is also a former Finance Minister of Nigeria.
“With things like a pandemic that affects every country and everyone and climate change as well, no one country can solve this on their own and it is absolutely necessary that we have international cooperation and solidarity,” the Nigerian official said.
She said that with COVID-19, no country is safe “so that’s why cooperation is necessary to sort it out.”
The international economist also stated that until the health aspects of the COVID are solved, “we won’t be able to tackle the economic aspects of it appropriately.”
Vaccine discussed
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala who is among candidates seeking the top position at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, pointed out that right now poorer and smaller countries need to find a way to access the vaccines which have been developed to deal with COVID-19. Because of the cost of the vaccines, the problems with distribution is not only getting them but also distributing them where they are required.
According to her, “These are some of the challenges we have, that concern universal access. I think that is why it is important to have a global outreach to this issue of getting vaccines to everyone.”
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala stated that countries have to solve the problem of finding a vaccine that works. However, she revealed that the good news from this is that manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have come up with vaccines which are 90 per cent effective while another firm, AstraZeneca is coming up with one that is 70 per cent to 90 per cent effective.
Noting that the challenges of distribution have to be overcome, the Nigerian remarked that some of the vaccines require storage at temperatures that are not normal and had not been tried before.
She believed that the AstraZeneca product will be easier to distribute. “So we need to overcome these challenges in order to be able to distribute them to everyone who needs them,” she reasoned.