Blair argued that given the emerging Covid-19 strains in different countries, the "whole world is in peril if we allow this situation to persist."
“We need to create a globally co-ordinated vaccine strategy now, bringing together representatives from science, medicine, the pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing, financiers, distribution and logistics to consider how to accelerate vaccine production and oversee allocation and procurement processes with governments,” Blair wrote.
His article was met with a bulk of scepticism and a myriad of reminders of his controversial political past. Users on social media were fast to point out that in contrast to his decisions as prime minister, Blair was “about saving lives now.”
Other users also brought up Blair’s 2003 decision to commit Britain to war in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in his article, Blair called to “expand Africa’s vaccine manufacturing capacity in particular, as the only continent without this capability, and enable it to make its own biologics, such as antivirals and antibodies.”
He argued that as the pandemic exposed “the lack of resilience in global vaccine manufacture”, the need to empower every continent to produce Covid-19 jabs is ever more important.
“This will require significantly scaling up support for local pharmaceutical industries,” former UK PM added.
Recently Blair has criticised the actions of the EU to briefly override the Brexit deal by triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol in an attempt to restrict shipments of Covid-19 vaccines.
He called EU’s actions foolish and unacceptable, adding that fortunately Brussels withdrew its threat.
Some users have not been appreciative of Blair’s “interventions” in current affairs. Others added that in his statements Blair was a “war criminal” crawling out “from under his rock.”
The Chilcot Report into Britain’s role in the 2003 Iraq war has presented a range of evidence that demonstrated that Parliament and the country were misled by Tony Blair in the run up to the conflict.