Mexico to voice vaccine distribution concerns with UN

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO (AA) - Mexico will share with the UN its position regarding the unequal distribution of global coronavirus vaccines, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Tuesday.

"These are one of the things we want to see in the UN so that there is equity, so that there is no hoarding in vaccines, that there is a principle of equality so that all countries have the possibility of vaccinating their inhabitants," Lopez Obrador said at a news conference as he conveyed the need for a more equitable distribution system.

Lopez Obrador accused plants belonging to Pfizer in the US of producing vaccines only for Americans, forcing Mexico to negotiate with the EU to secure vaccines.

Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced that Mexico would present the situation Wednesday to the UN Security Council, under instructions by the president.

"Tomorrow, we are going to present the position of Mexico and Latin America regarding what is happening in the world: inequality and inequity in access to vaccines, how the countries that produce them have very high vaccination rates, and Latin America and the Caribbean, very low?,” said Ebrard. “It is something that we are going to raise in the Security Council because it is not fair."

According to Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell, Mexico has given 813,785 vaccines as of Feb. 15.

Mexico officially began its second vaccination campaign after receiving 870,000 doses Sunday of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Ebrard said Mexico secured contracts for 232 million doses that would immunize up to 133 million Mexicans because the vaccines require two doses.

Mexico has 2.9 estimated cases and 174,657 deaths, according to Lopez Gatell, who said the country has a 41%.national hospital bed occupancy.