Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s Head of Economic and Social Justice, said: “The hoarding of vaccines actively undermines global efforts to ensure that everyone, everywhere can be protected from COVID-19. A first step would be to support South Africa and India’s proposal to the World Trade Organisation Council this week to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments until everyone is protected. The Alliance is also calling on governments to do everything in their power to ensure COVID-19 vaccines are made a global public good-free of charge to the public, fairly distributed and based on need. The People’s Vaccine Alliance is calling on all pharmaceutical corporations working on COVID-19 vaccines to openly share their technology and intellectual property through the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, so that billions more doses can be manufactured and safe and effective vaccines can be available to all who need them. This demonstrates that one company alone cannot hope to supply the whole world, and that only open sharing of technology between vaccine producers can make this possible. Oxford/AstraZeneca deals have also mostly been made with some of the big developing countries like China and India, while the majority of developing countries have not done deals and have to share the COVAX pool of vaccines between them. Yet despite their actions to scale up supply they can still only reach 18 per cent of the world’s population next year at most. ![]() In welcome contrast Oxford/AstraZeneca has pledged to provide 64 percent of their doses to people in developing nations. So far, all of Moderna’s doses and 96 percent of Pfizer/BioNTech’s have been acquired by rich countries. ![]() The Russian vaccine, Sputnik, has announced positive trial results and four other candidates are in phase 3 clinical trials. Two further potential vaccines, from Moderna and Oxford in partnership with AstraZeneca are expected to submit or are awaiting regulatory approval. It is likely to receive approval from other countries including the US within days. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has already received approval in the UK and vaccinations are beginning this week. Governments must also ensure the pharmaceutical industry puts people’s lives before profits.” Heidi Chow, from Global Justice Now, said: “ All pharmaceutical corporations and research institutions working on a vaccine must share the science, technological know-how, and intellectual property behind their vaccine so enough safe and effective doses can be produced. But unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 for years to come.” Five of the 67 – Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan and Ukraine - have reported nearly 1.5 million cases between them.Īnna Marriott, Oxfam’s health policy Manager, said: “ No one should be blocked from getting a life-saving vaccine because of the country they live in or the amount of money in their pocket. They found that 67 low and lower middle-income countries risk being left behind as rich countries move towards their escape route from this pandemic. The organizations, including Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now and Oxfam, who are part of an alliance calling for a People’s Vaccine, used data collected by science information and analytics company Airfinity to analyze the deals done between countries and the eight leading vaccine candidates. Updated data shows that rich nations representing just 14 per cent of the world’s population have bought up 53 per cent of all the most promising vaccines so far. Canada tops the chart with enough vaccines to vaccinate each Canadian five times. Nearly 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in ten people against COVID-19 next year unless urgent action is taken by governments and the pharmaceutical industry to make sure enough doses are produced, a group of campaigning organisations warned today.īy contrast, wealthier nations have bought up enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations nearly three times over by the end of 2021 if those currently in clinical trials are all approved for use.
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