Rich Countries Urged To Support Poor Countries So As To Contain Omicron

The world’s rich nations must help vaccinate the poorest nations or else they will face a continual cycle of economic shocks and restrictions in the face of new variants, the OECD’s chief economist has said.

Laurence Boone told media that the Omicron variant could cause the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) to downgrade its outlook for economic growth and inflation, but it is too early to say what damage it could cause.

She said that the variant was a reminder that for the richest countries – a group represented by the OECD – funding vaccinations in the developing world would cost only a fraction of their outlay in the past 18 months yet would bring immeasurable benefits.

“As long as the global population is not vaccinated, this type of variant can come in and bring restrictions,” she said.

“We G20 countries have spent about $10trn to support our economies in the pandemic – it costs $50bn to bring vaccines to the entire population.

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