Queen Rania of Jordan On Vaccine Equity and Why We Can’t Go Back To The ‘Old Normal’

Her Majesty expressed concerns regarding the accessibility of doses throughout the world, noting “we’re all in the race to end the pandemic together,” at the Virtual Warwick Economics Summit

With the vaccine rollout well underway, countries around the world are in a race to inoculate citizens and residents from the novel coronavirus, all in a bid to stop the spread of the virus and end the pandemic. Unfortunately, wealthier nations have been able to secure larger quantities of the vaccine, while other nations struggle to obtain enough doses to immunise even a percentage of their respective populations.

In conversation with CNN’s Becky Anderson at the Virtual Warwick Economics Summit, Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan expressed concerns regarding the distribution and accessibility of the vaccine, noting that while some countries have stockpiled enough doses to inoculate their populations several times over “lower income countries will, at best, only manage to vaccinate a tenth of their populations” this year, calling for global vaccine equity. Jordan is one of the few countries in the world that has promised to vaccinate refugees.

“We are all in a race against a pandemic, not against each other,” says Queen Rania. “I see no reason why those who have excess supply can’t donate their surplus to poorer countries.”

Sharing sentiments with her husband, His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan — who has also expressed that vaccines should be available to all nations — she highlighted the fact that the pandemic has disproportionately affected certain nations to a harsher degree, leading to an increase in poverty and inequality.

“This pandemic has revealed and reinforced cracks in our world order, along lines of income inequality, gender inequity, and social injustice,” says Her Majesty, noting that for the first time in twenty years extreme poverty was back on the rise.

“If we aren’t motivated by moral or ethical responsibility, then at least we should be motivated to act from a global health standpoint,” Queen Rania notes. “While some people are enjoying the benefits of rebounding global markets, far too many people around the world are suffering from parallel pandemics of hunger, violence, and illiteracy.”

Last year, UN Women revealed startling facts on how the pandemic is disproportionately affected women and girls within the region. As 80 per cent of nursing and care staff are female – putting them at a higher risk of infection – and with women’s participation in the labour market standing at only 21 per cent, they are at greater risk of both becoming infected by the virus and losing their jobs (UN Women estimates 700,000 jobs will be lost due to the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.)

Queen Rania also touched on these facts, along with how the pandemic has affected education and the importance of developing accessible remove learning programmes, noting that now was the perfect time to ”revamp, rethink, and redesign the workplace so that it better meets the needs of men and women.”

“Whatever ‘normal’ we go back to, I know that we cannot go back to the ‘old normal’ that left too many people behind,” she says. “If we’ve learnt one thing from this crisis, it’s that we’re only as strong as the weakest among us.”

Watch the full conversation between Queen Rania of Jordan and Becky Anderson below.

For more information, visit warwickeconomicssummit.com

Lead image supplied.