Graça Machel: global solidarity on Covid disappeared once vaccines arrived

Politician urges G7 to deliver on climate crisis and vaccines, which threaten richer and poorer countries

The global solidarity inspired by the Covid pandemic disappeared as soon as vaccines came along, the Mozambican politician Graca Machel has said before the G7 summit, as she called on richer countries to share vaccines and for progress on tackling the climate crisis.

Machel, a member of the Africa Progress Panel and a prominent politician, served as first lady in Mozambique and South Africa, as the wife of first Samora Machel and then Nelson Mandela. She said: Without everyone on Earth being vaccinated, there is no safety. It's a question of survival, even for the developed world. We have to take the necessary steps. To make sure everyone all of us get the vaccine - that is common sense.