‘Corporate greed’ made Aids and Covid worse, says Duke

THE Duke of Sussex has claimed that “corporate greed and political failures” have prolonged both the HIV and Covid pandemics.

Prince Harry marked World Aids Day by warning that not learning during the pandemic from mistakes made with Aids would be a “betrayal of the next generation”.

He said vaccinating the world was a “test of our moral character” and there had been a “spectacular failure” over global access to vaccines.

The Duke, in a letter read out on his behalf at a World Health Organisation and UNAIDS event, said his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales – known for breaking the stigma around Aids and HIV – would be “deeply grateful” to the scientific community for working tirelessly against Aids.

He stressed: “It’s time to draw from the lessons we learnt throughout the HIV/AIDS pandemic, where millions died unnecessarily due to deep inequities in access to treatment. Are we really comfortable repeating the failures of the past? Everything I’ve learnt, from the youth of Sentebale, tells me not. They see how repeating these mistakes is destructive and self-defeating, it is a betrayal of the next generation.”

The Duke also narrated a video for the People’s Vaccine, a group of organisations campaigning for access to vaccines, voicing his concerns as part of the event. It featured clips of Diana meeting Aids patients, and also of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during the Global Citizen Live event in September, which called for leaders to adopt a vaccine equity policy.

The Duke said in the footage: “There are striking parallels between Covid-19 and another deadly pandemic. One that

‘Are we really comfortable repeating the failures of the past? Everything I’ve learnt tells me not’

emerged 40 years ago – HIV. This is a story about how corporate greed and political failure have prolonged both pandemics and what we can do to stop it. By ending vaccine monopolies and sharing technology, companies in the developing world can start producing Covid vaccines too. Break the monopolies, deliver a people’s vaccine.”

Christine Stegling, executive director at the charity Frontline Aids, said: “We urgently need a people’s vaccine to benefit everyone, everywhere.”