OECD Calls on Wealthy Nations to Share Vaccines

The Paris-based global economic think tank the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) called on the world's wealthiest nations Tuesday to share vaccines to ensure an even global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, along with the organization's economists and policy analysts, delivered an interim report on the global economic recovery at a Paris news conference.

Cormann said the world is seeing a strong recovery from the economic crisis overall, thanks to decisive action by governments and central banks at the height of the crisis to implement economic support policies and packages.

He said that, as has been seen with vaccine distribution, economic progress also has been uneven around the world. To ensure that economic recovery is sustained and widespread, he called for action on two fronts. First, effective vaccination programs across all countries, then, strategic investment strategies to build for the future.

Cormann said, "Economic policy priority number one, two, three and four remains to get as many people around the world vaccinated as quickly as possible, and I think that every possible international level, whatever can be done to ensure that happens, will be a way to ensure that the economic recovery will be sustained."

The OECD said while the world is recovering from the shock of the pandemic faster than it anticipated a year ago, that recovery remains "uneven."

The organization, which monitors and advises 38 member countries, said greater international effort should be made to provide low-income countries with the resources they need to vaccinate their populations, both for their own and global benefits.

Developed countries are being urged by several international groups, including the World Health Organization, to share excess vaccine doses with poor nations that have not yet immunized their people, instead of using them to provide booster shots for their own populations.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.