Introduction to the chairs

Adolfo Alvarez
Greetings delegates!
My name is Adolfo Alvarez from the United States and Mexico, and I will serve as
your Chair for the World Health Organization in the Asia World MUN. To let you know
a little about me, I am currently a Junior High School student, SDGs advocate, and
MUN enthusiast. I started my journey in Model United Nations back in 2016 and
equipped with dedication, hard work, and determination, my performance as an
agent of change has carried me to participate in numerous national and international
Model United Nations conferences, discussion panels, global summits, academic
competitions, and to found the international organization, Unity in Diversity alongside
one of my best friends. Aside from that, my hard skills have taken me to become the
video editor for a Spanish TikTok influencer with over 1.7 million followers.

In these tough times of social distancing, it is more important than ever to raise your
voices in favor of change. I'm beyond happy to chair this committee alongside
Jordan, I believe that every delegate has strong skills to develop in the conference,
and all of you are here to propose solutions for a very sensible issue, you are divided
by nationality, but united by humanity. To conclude, I would like to emphasise the
fact, that not only will you join a very great conference, but attending this event would
also be an occasion for you to make new friends, improve your english level, learn
more about WHO and the UN, develop public speaking, research, and diplomatic
skills, and several benefits that you will get.

I hope you can take the discussions to the real world to build a more informed
society; wherever you are and whenever you want, you delegates can be the
change!; Don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions, I will be
delighted to help you out by Instagram DM (@adolfo.alvarez_tx) or by WhatsApp
(+52 744 2726 759).

Best of luck delegates!

1
Rousseau Jordan Angelo Napitu
Greetings, delegate!
My name is Rousseau Jordan Angelo Napitu, Jordan for short. I am currently
a third-year student of Law in Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta. I
will be serving as your Dais of World Health Organization in Asia World MUN and it
is my pleasure that I can collaborate with Mr. Adolfo Alvarez as the Board of Dais. I
have been part of the MUN circuit since 2018 and have done several national and
international MUN.
Aside from joining MUN either as delegates or Board of Dais, I am also a
part-time Classical Piano Teacher and President of the Student Executive Board of
the Faculty of Law at my campus that makes me love MUN stuff since it provides a
lot of skill that we need for our future, especially in debate and negotiation skill and
will be useful for me in organization management.
In the end, I hope that WHO delegates will be able to conduct substantive
debates throughout the council and enjoy the conference. Remember delegates,
don’t be afraid to speak up. No one is judging you, because we’ve all been there. If
you have any inquiries or assistance, do not hesitate to contact me through
[email protected] or Instagram DM (jrdanangelo) . Hope to see you soon!

2
 Introduction to the committee

The primary role of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to be

responsible for public health worldwide (Columbia University, 2003). WHO began its
Constitution on April 7, 1948, to coordinate the United Nations’ health affairs. WHO
is working with 194 Member States, across six regions, from more than 150 offices.
They have over 7000 people working, and their headquarter is located in Geneva,
Switzerland. 1

WHO is directed towards international health in the United Nations systems

and leads towards global health responses. From combating various diseases,
helping mothers and children live a healthy life, and provide citizens with the
medicine and vaccines they need. WHO’s main areas of work fall under health
systems, health through the life course, non-communicable and communicable
diseases, preparedness, surveillance and response, and corporate services.

The WHO structure comprises principal organs such as the World Health
Assembly, the Executive Board, and the secretariat that is headed by the
director-general. The World Health Assembly is the decision and policy-making body
of WHO. This is attended by all the delegations of the Member States (Science Alert,
n.d.). The Executive Board of WHO is composed of qualified members in health and
can affect the decision and policy making of the assembly. In the meetings, a
General Programme of Work is made, and it sets a framework for the financial
resources and expenditure for the next five years. The program’s budget portal is
updated every quarter. It provides a breakdown of the organization’s work into three
areas, namely categories, programs, and output.
Since the WHO coordinates international health work, they also have partner
countries, the United Nations, international organizations, civil society, foundations,
academia, and research institutions.2

1
World Health Organization. (n.d.). About WHO. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/about
(Accessed 08 Mar 2021)
2
World Health Organization. (n.d.). World Health Assembly. World Health Organization.
https://www.who.int/about/governance/world-health-assembly (Accessed March 7, 2021)

3
 Introduction to the topic

The spread of Covid-19 is currently in the 3rd wave stage. At the moment,
Covid has infected more than 55 million people worldwide with the death toll
reaching around 1.3 million.3 Many countries such as the United States and the UK
which have the most cases in the world, have implemented tight surveillance
mechanisms because of the rapid growth in just a few moments. All cases continue
to increase worldwide even though at this time there are several vaccines available
such as the Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccine, Sinovac Vaccine, Novavax, and Pfizer.4
On the other hand, there are also mutations of new Covid-19 variants from Africa
and also the United Kingdom. This latest variant is stated to be easier to spread and
infect than the existing Covid-19 variants.5 Referring to a report provided by WHO
that Europe accounts for around 28% of Global Covid-19 cases and 26% of deaths
with signs of overwhelmed health systems due to this pandemic, is alarming. With
this data, it shows that the current vaccine distribution mechanism is still a challenge
because the vaccines already exist but cannot be implemented properly in every
country and the situation is getting worse because more and more victims have
contracted Covid with various kinds of the latest symptoms that have emerged.
Many mechanisms for handling Covid in the 1st and 2nd waves have been
carried out starting from lockdowns, large-scale social restrictions, strict supervision
of people who will travel both domestic and international trips, but in practice it is not
enough to reduce the number of virus spreads that occur in the world today.
Therefore we need Global Cooperation between all countries taking into
consideration their varying capabilities, depending on whether they qualify as a
developed or developing country. Therefore we need Global Cooperation between all
countries because all countries have different capabilities, both developed and
developing countries, which make vaccines must be developed and distributed in
terms of dealing with social issues currently facing the world, such as social
distancing or physical distancing because humans are social beings that require

3
"WHO predicts 3rd wave of COVID-19 in Europe in early 2021 | Daily ...." Accessed March 7, 2021.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/europe/who-predicts-3rd-wave-of-covid-19-in-europe-in-early-2021.
4
"The four types of COVID-19 vaccine – a snapshot | Healthcare IT News." Accessed March 7, 2021.
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/four-types-covid-19-vaccine-snapshot.
5
"Covid 19: New mutation in more contagious UK variant ... - France 24." Accessed March 8, 2021.
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210205-covid-19-new-mutation-in-more-contagious-uk-variant
-raises-concerns.

4
interaction with other people and cannot be isolated continuously. With this vaccine
we can overcome this problem and life will return to normal slowly but surely.
The certainty of the vaccine supply chain and also other assistance can be
carried out well if the collaboration between countries goes well. All countries
currently have the same concern because COVID-19 does not only damage the
health system but also economic aspects. Many countries, especially countries that
have a humanitarian crisis, will find it difficult to receive assistance due to the
inadequate situation in the distribution mechanism both to developing countries and
also countries affected by the humanitarian crisis for example in Syria that lack of
access and damaged infrastructure, which make the situation worse.6
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO) in his speech has warned with quotes as “For all our
differences, we are one human race sharing the same planet and our security is
interdependent - no country will be safe, until we’re all safe”.7 Therefore it is hoped
that all leaders will cooperate on the global level because that is what we need right
now to stop the pandemic and this is not only a smart choice but also the only choice
we have.
As we also know that there is a new mechanism, namely the immunity
passport jointly developed by Mvine and iProov supported by the United Kingdom.8
For now it is still not recommended by WHO because according to scientists there is
no certainty whether COVID-19 antibodies will reduce the risk of re-infection. A study
states that coronavirus antibodies can only last for about two to three months after
infection so this idea is still not recommended by WHO because it cannot be
ascertained whether it will be safe if it is possible for those who have infected
COVID-19 to travel again with the thought that they are already given Antibodies and
will be immune to re-transmission of the COVID 19 virus.9

6
"Syria: Covid-19 Vaccine Access Should Be Expanded, Fair | Human ...." Accessed March 8, 2021.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/02/syria-covid-19-vaccine-access-should-be-expanded-fair.
7
"Global cooperation is our only choice against COVID-19 ... - UN News." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/08/1069702.
8
"UK COVID-19 immunity passports entering live testing phase ...." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/uk-covid-19-immunity-passports-entering-live-testing-p
hase.
9
"WHO doesn't recommend coronavirus passports, because ... - CNBC." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/who-doesnt-recommend-coronavirus-passports-because-immunity-
remains-questionable.html.

5
 Current Issues and Status
Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to
sustainable development. Currently, the world is facing a global health crisis unlike
any other — COVID-19 is spreading human suffering, destabilizing the global
economy and upending the lives of billions of people around the globe. All societies
have social hierarchies in which economic and social resources, including power and
prestige, are distributed unequally. The unequal distribution of resources impacts
people’s freedom to lead lives they have reason to value. This in turn has a powerful
impact on health and its distribution in society. 10

Debate in the World Health Organization will be spent creating policy and
coordinating international action in preparation for, and in response to a possibly
third wave of the ongoing global pandemic caused by the COVID-19. Delegates
should come prepared with knowledge of their nation’s infectious disease policy as
well as their capacity to respond to this pandemic (previous policies, temporary
migration restrictions, status of the spread, etc.) Delegates will serve as advisors to
their nation on how to best protect their citizens and contain the spread of disease.

Through this study guide, all of you will be equipped with an understanding of the
importance of international cooperation to address the third wave of COVID-19,
different factors that lead to the spread of disease, and the current resources
available to contain it. Delegates should arrive in committee with an understanding
of where efforts can be made to improve the response to an epidemic at every step
along the path of progression: from prevention, to identification, to tracking, to
quarantine, to vaccination, and hopefully to elimination of the disease.
Therefore, the following issues are crucial for the global strategy to face this crisis,
and we expect that all the delegates address them through their solutions:

10
Health and Sustainable Development (2021). Available at:
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/health/ (Accessed: 09 March 2021).

6
Box 1 - Current Issue A: The long phases of an “infectious wave”, and the
current situation globally.

Knowledge of epidemic infections allows us to divide the pandemic into three

phases, (see Fig. 1)

Source: Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: a narrative review to highlight
clinical and research needs in the acute phase and the long return to normality

Phase one or the preparation phase: Governments enforce social distancing,

shutdown and general measures of hygiene in order to contain and mitigate the
spreading of the infection and flatten the curve of new cases over time. We saw
this phase from February to August and from November to January, 2020, when
governments started to implement quarantine, migratory, and social measures to
control the spread of the virus.

Phase two or the punctum maximum phase: The curve reaches the highest
incidence of new cases, and mortality rate peaks, including a plateau phase. In the
current pandemic, predictions of when this occurs have been made, and some
countries seem to have passed this point while many others have not yet reached
it.

7
 Phase three or the return to normality phase: recovering from the pandemic, which
requires re-organizing and re-establishing services and practices.11

Phase four: If the re-organization does not help in the spread control, the process
repeats over and over again, until the country reaches the immunization through a
successful vaccination campaign or the improvement of the control measures.

To explain the issue, we have these countries and blocs as examples: Israel,
European Union, United States, Mexico, South Africa and Australia. The results in
the following graphic are expressed by cases per 100,000 people. (see fig. 2)

COVID-19 New Cases per 100,000 people

Source: Financial Times analysis of data from the Johns Hopkins CSSE, the World Health Organization, the
UK Government coronavirus dashboard and the Swedish Public Health Agency.
Data updated March 9 2021 1.34pm GMT

Israel: The country has inoculated a third of its population of 9 million in little more
than a month, and over 80 percent of those 60 and older.12
Analysis: We can clearly see that the vaccination response is paying off in
the control of the spread in Israel.

11
"Challenges and burden of the Coronavirus 2019 ... - NCBI - NIH."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7216870/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
12
"Early rate reductions of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 in ...." 18 Feb. 2021,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00448-7/fulltext. Accessed 9 Mar.
2021.

8
 European Union: The EU is mobilising all resources available to help member
states coordinate their national responses, and this includes providing objective
information about the spread of the virus, the effective efforts to contain it and
measures taken to repair the economic and social damage brought by the
pandemic.13
Analysis: We can observe that the EU is implementing several measures
with a normal vaccination program; however, the bloc of countries is still
facing an active wave.
United States: The Biden-Harris administration in the United States is
implementing several strategies to tackle the pandemic, such as a national mask
mandate and creating an office of COVID-19 response, headed by the new
coronavirus czar. The US is also vaccinating over 2 million people per day.14
Analysis: The US is facing a recovery from this crisis, and is flattening the
curve after being the most affected country in the world.
Mexico and South Africa: These countries have been implementing several
programs and strategies aside from vaccination, which is not enough yet to
influence the statistics.1516
Analysis: In those undeveloped countries, the vaccination will be the key to
flatten the curve, since the measures are not enough to make the society
understand the importance of the health protocols.
Australia: This country's success in containing the pandemic can be attributed in
part to structural advantages that are not necessarily replicable, including the
country’s position as an island nation, which makes it relatively easy to close
borders.17
Analysis: Australia leads the recovery from COVID-19 after implementing
rigorous public policies and executive orders to control the epidemic.

13
"The common EU response to COVID-19 | European Union - europa.eu."
https://europa.eu/european-union/coronavirus-response_en. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
14
"Government Response to Coronavirus, COVID-19 | USAGov." https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus.
Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
15
"Mexico and the COVID-19 Response - NCBI - NIH."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7445449/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
16
"The South African Response to the Pandemic | NEJM." 11 Jun. 2020,
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2014960. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
17
"Reflecting on Australia's COVID-19 response | McKinsey."
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/collaboration-in-crisis-reflec
ting-on-australias-covid-19-response. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.

9
 Box 2 - Current Issue B: Lack of programs to assist in the distribution of the
COVID-19 vaccine
The whole world is currently trying to get their hands on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Unfortunately, being able to attain and distribute this vaccine is not simple and has
met various complications. It has been difficult to consider approved treatments
and vaccines against the deadly virus due to the lack of interest among
pharmaceutical companies and lack of sustained government funding for the
development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Something that must be considered for the
vaccine is that it should not only prevent death but also boost mucosal immunity to
be able to address nasal virus shedding. However, many first world countries have
been developing a vaccine ever since the outbreak has begun18.
WHO has just announced that persuading people on the merits of a COVID-19
vaccine will be effective. They stated that individual countries should be able to be
the ones to conduct their vaccine campaigns. In the United States, on December
1, 2020, the Former President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ensure
priority access for COVID-19 vaccines for the Americans. US officials have
announced that they have enough COVID-19 vaccines to let most Americans get
one before June. The United Kingdom has already started to administer the first
doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines with priorities given to the senior citizens,
frontliners, and staff of care homes. China has already created their own vaccine
from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and they have recently given Indonesia 1.2
million doses of the vaccine. With the first world countries being able to produce
their own vaccines and distributing it within their respective countries, the
developing and underdeveloped countries are in need of them as well.
Unfortunately, due to their economic difficulties, they are unable to produce
vaccines of their own, thus, there will be a need for the distribution of vaccines of
the developed countries worldwide.
The following are some of the issues being faced worldwide regarding the
distribution of the vaccines:

18
"Global equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines estimated to ...." 3 Dec. 2020,
https://www.who.int/news/item/03-12-2020-global-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-estimated-to-generate-
economic-benefits-of-at-least-153-billion-in-2020-21. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.

10
 1. Quality Control
Despite the different countries being able to produce their own vaccines,
being able to distribute this within the country and the world has been an issue.
Due to the high demand for COVID-19 vaccines, there may be a shortage of this
for the next four to five months. The scarcity of vaccines is also due to the fact that
they need to meet the requirements of an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to
become widely available19. Quality control measures are needed to ensure each
vial has the right dose and substance. Various specialized facilities and highly
trained professionals are needed to do this. These are also not enough facilities
and experts to speed up the process of quality control for the COVID-19 vaccines.
2. Extreme Storage Requirements
There has been a rapid development and production for the COVID-19 vaccine.
However, even if there will be enough vaccines for everyone, there are not enough
cold storage facility units to store this especially in the developing and
underdeveloped countries. Research stated that the vaccines cannot be stored in
commercial freezers but instead conventional refrigerators. In transporting the
vaccines, they also need to be placed along dry ice and ultra - cold freezers. The
complex needs of the COVID-19 vaccine is going to be an issue for many
countries due to the logistics, funding, and shortage of facility units20.
3. Nursing Shortage
Hospitals all around the world are under a nursing shortage due to the enormous
spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses who will be incharge of vaccination
should still undergo training o n how to handle the extreme storage requirements
including how to defrost, dilute, and administer it. It is estimated that each nurse
will only be able to vaccinate six people in an hour and taking into account the
worldwide population, vaccinating everyone immediately will be an issue. Aside
from that, tracking will be needed to identify who has received the vaccine and who

19
"Access and allocation: how will there be fair and equitable allocation ...." 12 Jan. 2021,
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/access-and-allocation-how-will-there-be-fair-and-
equitable-allocation-of-limited-supplies. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.
20
"Cold storage is crucial to COVID-19 vaccine distribution | ASU News." 1 Dec. 2020,
https://news.asu.edu/20201201-solutions-cold-storage-crucial-covid-19-vaccine-distribution. Accessed
9 Mar. 2021.

11
 has received the second dose and the logistics may also be an issue with the
nursing shortage21.
4. Logistics
Distributing a huge amount of vaccines all around the world with extreme storage
requirements may face some difficulties. It must be ensured that the vaccines are
distributed rapidly, effectively, and equitably. Some of the aspects that have to be
considered are the identifying and vetting of broad network of sites for the
administration, it should also be ensured that the extreme cold storage facilities are
met especially in terms of transportation, there should also be a monitoring of the
delivery especially in the multiple doses, and lastly, there should be a tracking for
the vaccine safety as well.
5. Funding
One of the major issues faced by most countries worldwide is the economic
incapabilities of some countries most especially for the developing and
underdeveloped countries. Aside from the individual cost of the vaccine that every
citizen in the country needs, the funding for transportation and storage facilities
may also be a burden for these countries.

21
"Healthcare Providers: Vaccine Storage and Handling | CDC."
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/admin/storage-handling.html. Accessed 9 Mar. 2021.

12
 Past actions

UN Bodies

In 2020 WHO itself has the United Nations launch a program coordinated by
WHO and the World Food Program (WFP) - by sending deliveries of personal
protective equipment, biomedical equipment and all the tools needed by the medical
world at that time.22 All countries including the World Bank and also the Global Fund
offer their capabilities in order to simplify the supply chain of medical needs. WHO in
this case is capable of offering expertise in making purchases regarding medical
devices that work well and are also accurate while WFP is mobilizing to ensure all
logistics can be reached properly by making routes globally in terms of supply. The
supply chain as a whole is spread across eight countries that are considered
strategic, such as, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Ethiopia, Panama, Belgium,
Ghana, South Africa and China.23 The targets to be achieved are sectors that are
vulnerable to Covid-19, such as the elderly, health workers, people who have a
disease disorder and also people who have an unhealthy mental condition. The
United Nations itself is trying to create a situation where everyone will get good
psychological protection because in this Pandemic many people were affected
psychologically as a result of being trapped in this crisis. Therefore, WHO
recommends all parties, including government, society and health workers, to unite
in dealing with this problem, especially in relation to mental health. Countries in
general have also followed this recommendation from WHO and the progress of
improving services, especially in mental health for infected people, has improved.24

On the other hand, WHO has also collaborated with the European Union in
the context of global cooperation with Cuba in response to COVID-19. The
agreement between WHO and the European Union to assist Cuba for € 1.5 million
as a form of stimulus to strengthen the country's capacity to respond to COVID-19

22
"How WHO is re-imagining and fixing the links in the supply chains ...." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/how-who-is-re-imagining-and-fixing-the-links-in-t
he-supply-chains-during-covid-19.
23
"Supply Chain and COVID-19: UN rushes to move vital equipment to ...." Accessed March 6, 2021.
https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/supply-chain-and-covid-19-un-rushes-move-vital-equipment-frontlin
es
24
""Mental health services are an essential part of all government ...." Accessed March 7, 2021.
https://www.un.org/en/coronavirus/mental-health-services-are-essential-part-all-government-response
s-covid-19.

13
and increase the availability of medical devices, public health and personal
protection equipment for health workers who are frontliners and need good
protection to ensure their life.25 This stimulus is also aimed at increasing the ability to
intensify the initial diagnosis, monitoring and also the application of health protocols,
both treatment and epidemiological surveillance.

Inter-Agency Standing Committee

The Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) collaborates with NGOs and

also the United Nations to collaborate in a Global Humanitarian Response Plan for
countries that need assistance in this crisis. The mechanism used is that NGOs will
be able to hold funding in collaboration with UN Agencies, through a pooled funding
mechanism, including Country-Based Pooled Funds, and direct donor funding.26 The
purpose of this assistance is to populations that fall into the vulnerable category or
countries that request for international assistance such as Iran. The funds that have
been collected are 2.8M US $ and this is very helpful for Iran to be able to continue
to face the pandemic situation which continues and makes the situation more difficult
even though the fund requirement that requested by Iran is 89.5 M US $ which will
be divided for two sector, 64.4 M US $ for health sector and 25.1 M US $ for non
health sector .27

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China (MOFA)

MOFA itself in April 2020 launched a third wave of International humanitarian

assistance by donating 7.07 million face masks to several countries such as the
United States, the European Union, several countries that are its allies and Africa
and Middle East countries. The campaign they are conducting is called "Taiwan Can
Help, Health for all" by providing assistance until May as many as 3.93 million face
masks as a form of international assistance in order to increase global cooperation to
fight COVID-19 because according to them mutually beneficial cooperation can build

25
"Donors back WHO's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic." Accessed March 8, 2021.
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/donors-back-who-s-diverse-fight-against-the-shift
ing-covid-19-pandemic-all-over-the-world.
26
"COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan ...." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/ru/programme-cycle/space/document/covid-19-global-humanit
arian-response-plan.
27
"GLOBAL HRP COVID-19 - OCHA." Accessed March 9, 2021.
https://www.unocha.org/sites/unocha/files/GHRP_update_20MAY2020_0.pdf.

14
good defense in order to deal with this situation.28 In addition to providing good
assistance from medical equipment, Taiwan is also working with the US to conduct
online workshops in developing mechanisms for handling COVID-19 and also talks
about developing COVID-19 Vaccines.29

Bloc Positions

Developed Countries

● The first world countries or those with leading economies are currently the first
ones to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact for some of them, they are able
to produce their own. They are first in line as they are financially capable of
purchasing vaccines and they have better access for transportation and the
cold storage facilities. While some of them are still struggling with containing
the virus, their economic capacity allows them to provide vaccines to the most
vulnerable, frontlines, and eventually all the citizens.

Developing Countries

● Developing countries may still be struggling with the containment of the virus
and they may have some difficulties in economically standing back up.
Majority of their funds were allocated towards mass testing and treatment for
those who were infected. When the vaccines are available to them, those who
are most probably receiving them are the frontliners and most vulnerable.
Being able to provide everyone with the vaccines will be difficult and there
may also be some issues in terms of storage and transportation.

Under-developed Countries

● Unfortunately, for the under-developed countries having access to a vaccine

will be extremely difficult. Majority of them do not even have the ability to treat
those infected with the COVID-19. Hospitals, ventilators, health workers, and
even personal protective equipment are not even readily available in these
28
"MOFA announces third wave of international humanitarian ...." Accessed March 8, 2021.
https://www.mofa.gov.tw/en/News_Content.aspx?n=1EADDCFD4C6EC567&s=A6A5262977208EE8.
29
Ibid.

15
 countries. While having to struggle to attain their basic needs, COVID-19 has
truly created a negative impact in their lives. The government will not be able
to fund for a huge amount of vaccines due to the economic conditions.

QARMAs

1. How to ensure the vaccine distribution, especially in countries which have

humanitarian crises?
2. Following question number 1, Taking into account that the vaccine for the
COVID-19 is fairly new, how will quality control be addressed?
3. What programs are needed to properly equip doctors, nurses, and medical
staff to perform the vaccination?
4. What could be the possible international mechanism in strengthening the
global cooperation for facing the 3rd wave of COVID-19?
5. Will the immunity passport mechanism fulfill the expectation and can be
implemented in every country?
6. What are the roles of the various private sectors and non-governmental
organizations in the control of the 3rd wave of COVID-19?
7. Under what framework can the Member States and the WHO work to
strengthen the international cooperation to address this infections wave

16
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