It is disgraceful that healthcare workers around the world are yet to be vaccinated against Covid-19 - and Ireland should donate doses to developing countries to prevent further coronavirus deaths, Dr Mike Ryan said.
Dr Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organisation's Health Emergencies Programme, said wealthy countries like Ireland should donate vaccines to countries in need.
The Sligo doctor, who is leading the WHO’s response against Covid-19, said it's "an abomination" that frontline workers and elderly people in poor countries have not been vaccinated while young, healthy people have been jabbed within the EU and USA.
He said: "It's a tragedy and an abomination today that there are frontline health workers going to work in Covid-19 wards who have still not been vaccinated against Covid-19.
"That's a disgrace. There is enough vaccine in the world to protect those who need to be protected.
"We have been brought to our knees by a health crisis. Not by a conflict or a war or an economic bubble.
"We've been brought to our knees by a virus. Not because the virus is smart but because we're stupid.
"We have not been able to use a ground-breaking tool in the smartest way we could have.
"We've applied the learnings of the last 50 years in biotechnology and developed vaccines that are highly effective at preventing hospitalisation an death.
"What's our next move? To distribute them in an inequitable fashion so we can stop the tragedy of the pandemic in some countries and allow it to continue in so many others."
Dr Ryan said the COVAX initiative, which aims to provide equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, is not effective as it has only secured 100 million doses of the 3 billion doses made worldwide.
He also said lockdowns would likely come to an end much sooner if vaccines were given to frontline workers and elderly people around the world.
Dr Ryan said: "Governments had to shut down economies and the mobility of people and they've done that to protect the health system which was becoming overwhelmed with hospitalised people.
"Vaccines avoid that reality by ensuring the most vulnerable, older people and people with underlying conditions and healthcare workers, would get vaccinated.
"It would take that consequence out of the equation and allow economies to open back up again with the continued application of public health and social measures.
"Not at the level of lockdowns that remove people's freedoms and rights and needs to earn a living.
"That intervention has been distributed unfairly and in a way that has delivered that solution to high-income countries.
"It has consigned low-income countries to the point of impact of the pandemic shifting every week.
"We've seen the overwhelmed hospitals scrambling for oxygen and diagnostic tests.
"That outcome is not a result of the virus. That consequence is because of our inaction in distributing a vital strategic tool that will and can prevent that around the world."
Dr Ryan also urged Irish people to tell the Government to donate vaccines to countries in need.
Speaking at the launch of Ireland’s People’s Vaccine Alliance, he said: "The Irish Government has a leadership role in the European Union and on the UN Security Council.
"Leaders like Micheal Martin are vastly experienced in working in international affairs.
"It is time for leadership and for countries to make a choice. It is time to say 'we can protect our own and we can reach out and protect others'.
"Also, citizens need to give permission to Governments. Citizens need to say to their politicians 'it's okay to share'."
Dr Ryan, who is originally from Sligo and now works at the WHO in Geneva, said he spent many months worrying about his relatives in Ireland as coronavirus spread here.
He said: "There are so many people, the diaspora, who spent the last year and a half worrying about their relatives back home.
"I've done the same and the sense helplessness is an extra stress to everyone who lives in our global diaspora."
The People's Vaccine Alliance Ireland, which is made up of 19 organisations, is demanding that Ireland support the TRIPS waiver and to endorse the WHO's Covid Technology Access Pool to facilitate the sharing of knowledge by pharmaceutical companies to increase vaccine production.
The TRIPS waiver is a mechanism at the World Trade Centre that would allow for the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics.
