China's COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts vital to global pandemic fight: Expert

MADRID -- China's commitment to the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines is vitally important in the fight to contain and defeat the pandemic, according to one expert.

Noting that China is providing urgently needed vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organizations, Xulio Rios, director of the Observatory of Chinese Politics in Spain, said in an interview with Xinhua that the Asian country has played a critical role in helping the world respond to the grave challenge.

Rios said China has overcome its own difficulties with the virus while maintaining its commitments to global solidarity to end the pandemic.

China has been carrying out anti-COVID-19 cooperation with the World Health Organization and other countries since the onset of the pandemic to bolster the production and distribution of vaccines and increase their accessibility and affordability across the world, especially in developing and less developed countries.

The global health body has called for efforts to bridge the distribution gap of vaccines, in which high-income countries have obtained massive supplies, while poor countries are struggling to get the life-saving tools.

This opens an important debate over different global perspectives, with some promoting economic benefits despite the cost in lives, while others favor solidarity and advocate recognizing vaccines as global public goods, Rios said.

"Whether we talk about prevention, containment or vaccination, serious deficiencies have been revealed that not only have to do with national or cultural identities but also with long-standing economic and social models," the expert noted.

Consequently, world public health has now moved to the forefront of the great challenges facing the human race, which include climate change, tackling inequalities and imbalances, and disarmament. In times of polarity, international cooperation is urgently needed, he added.