The Bolivarian Government, in the voice of the Executive Vice President Delcy Rodríguez Gómez, reiterated to the world the denounce of that more than 73% of vaccines against the Coronavirus are under control of 10 countries, an action that violates the right to health and to timely access to the immunization process for the poorest nations, which highlights the enormous inequity and social inequality in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The statement was offered by Vice President Rodríguez during her speech, via videoconference at the 7th World Investment Forum under the slogan “Investing in sustainable development”, an event organized by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the city of Geneva, Switzerland.
Rodríguez assured that investors with greater economic capacity monopolize the production and distribution of the different brands of vaccines:
“Five investment funds, the largest in the world, are the holders of the vaccine, and the great development and expansion of capital. It has been precisely in this area, while millions of millions of people have gone into extreme poverty”, she pointed out.
She stressed that only in 2021 “two of the main vaccine developers accumulated a return of more than 300% in the stock market”, in addition to increasing their economic capital and expansion.
In another vein, the vice president also offered significant figures about the consequences caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on a global scale, which reveal that the poorest sectors continue to be the most disadvantaged ones, especially in the labor sector, which has been forced to close job sources:
“The pandemic has left us 114 million people who have lost their jobs and 120 million people have fallen into extreme poverty. This means that the poorest have become even poorer, and that inequality, as we have denounced in all international spaces, has increased, and where a very minority owns the wealth of the world’s majority”, she warned.
Finally, she made it clear that some nations increased their income despite the pandemic outbreak, while the rest of the planet remains in resistance due to the paralysis of economic growth:
“It is projected that the fulfillment of the sustainable development goals could be delayed by a decade, while the stock markets in the United States of North America reached record levels during 2020. While the whole of humanity was being affected by the pandemic in an inclement way, the US stock markets had a minimum growth of 40%”, she emphasized.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) focuses on examining the challenges related to investment and development in the perspective of a rapid and inclusive recovery after the Covid-19 crisis. It is also aimed at building a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive post-pandemic economic model for the coming years.
