WTO Chief Says Omicron Sounds Alarm on Fair Access to Vaccines

World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said work on an intellectual-property waiver aimed at widening vaccine access in poor countries will continue despite the sudden postponement of a meeting of key stakeholders this week.

“The new variant should be a clarion call to all of us that we should now move speedily to agree this response to the pandemic,” she said in a virtual briefing with reporters Tuesday.

“We need to use all tools at our disposal to make sure we solve this problem of access to vaccines,” she said, stressing that lives and economic recoveries are at stake.

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