Robinson calls for ‘vaccine for the people’
MARY Robinson has joined more than 150 former heads of state and Nobel laureates in signing an open letter to US president Joe Biden calling for a ‘people’s vaccine’ to end the pandemic.
India and South Africa have led the campaign, which calls for intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines to be waived so that production can be ramped up globally.
The Biden administration is said to be considering a temporary waiver of World Trade Organisation (WTO) intellectual property rules during the pandemic.
Mrs Robinson has supported the campaign, and has also called on EU leaders to ‘put the collective right to safety for all ahead of everything else – and come together to end this pandemic’.
The letter to Mr Biden says the waiver will ‘save lives and advance us towards global herd immunity’.
It states: ‘These actions would expand global manufacturing capacity, unhindered by industry monopolies that are driving the dire supply shortages blocking vaccine access. Nine in ten people in most poor countries may well go without a vaccine this year. At this pace, many nations will be left waiting until at least 2024 to achieve mass Covid-19 immunisation.’
It adds: ‘The full protection of intellectual property and monopolies will only negatively impact efforts to vaccinate the world and be self-defeating for the US. Were the virus left to roam the world, and even if vaccinated, people in the US would continue to be exposed to new viral variants.’
Along with the former Irish president, the letter has been signed by former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, former French president François Hollande, and former leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev.
The campaign has also been backed by the charity Oxfam Ireland. Chief executive Jim Clarken said: ‘The continuance of monopoly control by a small number of vaccine makers, and the resulting global vaccine inequality, is leaving millions of lives hanging in the balance by putting corporate profit before people.’