Global people’s vaccine needed

ON Wednesday, as the first round of Covid-19 vaccinations were rolled out in Northern Ireland, an alliance of campaigning organisations, of which Oxfam is a member, warned that up to 70 low and lower-middle income countries will only have capacity to vaccinate one in 10 people against Covid-19 next year unless governments and the pharmaceutical industry take urgent action.

To date wealthier nations have bought enough doses to vaccinate their entire populations almost three times over by the end of 2021 — nations that represent just 14% of the world’s population now own 53% of the most promising vaccines. For this reason our alliance is calling for a “people’s vaccine”.

The vaccines developed by Astrazeneca/oxford, Moderna and Pfizer/biontech have received more than $5bn in public funding, which places a responsibility on them to act in the global public interest.

Momentum is mounting for a people’s vaccine, which has already been backed by Covid survivors, health experts, activists, past and present world leaders, faith leaders and economists.

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 WHO Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) so that billions more doses can be manufactured and safe and effective vaccines can be available to all people, regardless of geography.

The alliance is also calling on governments to do everything in their power to ensure vaccines are made a global public good — free of charge to people, fairly distributed and based on need.

As Tedros Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organisation, said earlier this year: “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”

JIM CLARKEN

Chief executive, Oxfam Ireland