“Health has no ideology,” said the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso at the 76th United Nations General Assembly, held on September 21st in New York.

After saying that, he brought up the tragic images that were released worldwide at the beginning of the pandemic in Ecuador.

“Surely, there are those who remember the chilling images that circulated from Ecuador to the world, during the first days of the pandemic: bodies in the streets, overflowing hospitals, improvised mass graves.”

Those days, he acknowledged, his country was a model for everything that was wrong in handling the crisis, but months later, Ecuador has become “a case of success in vaccination in the world.”

Lasso highlighted the change that the country has had from the advance of vaccination against Covid-19; since in the first 100 days of his government it went from 3% of a vaccinated population to 52%.

“This achievement does not belong exclusively to Ecuadorian efforts. This achievement …is a case of success in the field of vaccination, and in large part, a merit of world diplomacy.”

He said that his country has turned to nations such as Russia and China to purchase vaccines against COVID-19, regardless of whether the governments of both countries observe ideological and market principles different from those of the government of Ecuador that he heads.

“Health has no ideologies. These words confirm to me the power of international cooperation when we only stop to listen to each other.”  He also shared that in a recent telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he echoed these words.

That is why 62% of all the vaccines that his administration has acquired come from China, the United States donated 2 million doses, and talks were started with Russia to lead to the construction on Ecuadorian soil of the first Latin American laboratory for the production of Sputnik vaccines. -V.

“The important thing about all this great accumulation of actions is not only the number of governments involved but the number of lives saved in Ecuador.”

Recalling that the very foundation of the United Nations Organization responded to the need for global solutions to global problems, the president said that all of us must take responsibility for the things that occur in all corners of the world.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has made those ideas take on new relevance and has forced us to put them to the test,” he said.

“Harmony and cooperation between governments to provide well-being to our peoples. It is very easy to divide the world into blocks or clubs, the difficult thing is to unite it in a solid edifice of peace and cooperation.

Faced with a global threat such as the pandemic, what other option do we have? What other option is there when it comes to saving our own Humanity?