. and if the world or parts of the world find themselves in a severe downside scenario, then there will be significantly higher health and economic returns from a higher vaccine coverage. high and upper - middle income countries have been able to reach high vaccine coverage across their populations, surpassing global targets. early this year, 70 % of the population of g20 countries have now been fully vaccinated. unfortunately, while progress has been made, the delivery of covid - 19 vaccines against global targets remains unequal and falls short of the expectations. 6. differences in economies currently, around 50 % of announced vaccine donations by high - income countries have been delivered to low - income countries. although the acute impact of the covid - 19 pandemic now seems to be fading in most parts of the world, there is still an opportunity to minimise the cost of having to live with the virus. about 130 countries failed to meet the imf's vaccination target of 70 % by mid2022 - similar inequalities persist in terms of access to tests and treatments. universal vaccination, according to the imf, remains the best shield against new variants and persistent health - related absenteeism. and this universal vaccination should be backed by broad public health campaigns to promote vaccine uptake. the imf continues : " governments should also intensify efforts to resolve vaccine supply and distribution bottlenecks and ensure equitable access to treatment. public support for better systematic responses to future epidemics and research into new vaccine technologies, including for a more widely effective pan - coronavirus vaccine, remains essential. " 3 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches 7. role of prevention for the economy in the netherlands, like in all other developed western countries, the current healthcare system is under immense pressure. challenging choices must be made to ensure a viable healthcare system in terms of funding, staffing and political backup. we expect a shift in focus from care to prevention and to sectors where quality and accessibility have been most under pressure in the past few years. preventive intervention will be needed, which can consist of the obvious, like preventive screening, vaccins or lifestyle campaigns. albeit important, prevention measures could also be expanded to include housing, food programmes, help with indebtedness, education and environmental policy. making better choices now means that we must implement those interventions that will improve our health. this will not only benefit our public health as a whole, but also

the results of their decision is that our organisations have been facilitating the inspire2live conferences for twelve years now – with a two - year interruption due to covida second parallel between my world and yours, dear guests, is also quite obvious. i'm looking at an international company of highly trained professionals, who cooperate 1 / 4 bis - central bankers'speeches across several borders to serve a societal goal. like your work, our work also has a societal goal and requires international cooperation. we share insights, raise questions and engage in debate with our colleagues from the eurozone, and on a wider scale with those from the worldbank, the imf and many other international organisations. and like you, we prefer to debate on the basis of evidence. scientific evidence. just like cancer research is the most fruitful when it can profit from cooperation of many researchers like you, from all over the world, just so our mission of stable financial institutions and sustainable welfare profits from international scientific cooperation. these parallels in your and our work, make me feel slightly less overwhelmed, standing in this stately hall filled with so many eminent academics. a third parallel is related to the substance of our work, of your work and mine. this is the parallel i would like to turn into the main subject of this opening speech. your subject of study - the treatment and prevention of cancer - has an economic value in addition to its intrinsic value. a healthy economy benefits from a healthy population. the past two years we have seen that the reverse is also true : a population suffering from a pandemic will suffer from economic consequences - not that i expect that you are eager to listen to a professor of economics telling you that your work is essential'because of its economic value'- your work is intrinsically essential of course. and here i would again like to thank you all, for your collective and unbridled commitment to global healthcare. with this speech i would like to try to substantiate this'thank you '. 3. why and how does a central bank take health into account? our core task as a central bank is – as i mentioned earlier - to contribute to financial stability and sustainable welfare for all dutch citizens. although there obviously is a relationship between economy and health, we must admit we cannot quantify or clearly specify this. but we did learn some things from the pandemic. central banks and other institutions have found a way of dealing with uncertainties by developing alternative economic scenarios.