Indonesian president: Vaccine nationalism prolonging global pandemic

Indonesian President Joko Widodo slammed richer countries for vaccine nationalism, which not only hinders the world's supply of Covid-19 vaccines, but also prolongs the pandemic, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

"Poor countries, developing countries, developed countries must be given equal treatment," said the president, widely known as Jokowi. "If not, the pandemic will not end.”

Indonesia has given out around 13.5 million vaccine doses. However, it will receive only 20 million doses instead of the 30 million expected in March and April. As a result, it has to slow down its program due to vaccine nationalism.

At the same time, the European Union has sought to block shipments, and countries like the US and the UK secured orders for more doses than their entire population needs. While about 700 million doses have been administered globally, the majority of the doses went to those people in richer nations and vaccine-producing countries.

Jokowi said the pandemic won't end with infections spreading continuously if the problem still exists, so it is no use for a country to "hoard vaccines".