Minister of Health Statement for The 74th World Health Assembly

Mr. President, the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros, Distinguished delegates

We gather for the 74th World Health Assembly at a difficult time when the devastating pandemic has crushed many lives and livelihoods across the world.

While the virus brought sufferings and too many deaths and disruption to the global economy, our scientists, researchers, medical, health, and other personnel have marshalled the science to understand this new disease and to rapidly develop new diagnostic technologies, medicines, and vaccines.  We cannot imagine the horrors of this pandemic had science and public health not stood tall.

So today, Guyana also joins in acknowledging the efforts of the global scientific, medical and public health communities and in extending our sincerest gratitude to everyone. Our collective actions under the WHO’s leadership have seen the creation of the Access to COVID 19 Tools accelerators (ACT- A) to accelerate the development, production and distribution of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines.

It has also created COVAX, which has worked hard to secure and distribute vaccines to countries worldwide. These efforts, while far from perfect, has made a tremendous difference to many countries. We, however, remain deeply concerned that despite the best efforts, there persist inequalities in availability, access and distribution of vaccines, and we will like to urge that concrete steps be taken to rectify the vaccines inequity as quickly as possible. We applaud the stance taken by the US on the TRIPS waiver. Guyana supports the call by India and South Africa for waivers to allow the global production capacity to bring relief to the vaccine supply chain. In that regards, Guyana believes that the discussion around the Nagoya Protocol is a significant discussion at this 74th WHA. 

As one of the beneficiary countries of COVAX’s generosity, Guyana would like to express its gratitude to COVAX and all the donors who have made this possible.

This 74th World Health Assembly has allowed us to deliberate on a list of global health priorities. There is no doubt that COVID-19 has changed our world. Although it has left a trail of death and destruction, we have an opportunity to inject hope, to build stronger global solidarity, to transform our world into a healthier and better one.

I look forward to the deliberations.

Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Health, Guyana