WHO chief: waive Covid vaccine patents to put world on 'war footing'
The normal rules of business that protect the profits of vaccine manufacturers will have to be set aside if that is what it takes to ensure everybody is immunised against the coronavirus, according to the director general of the World Health Organization.
Writing in the Guardian, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says the world needs to be “on a war footing”. Before a key meeting of the World Trade Organization next week on the anniversary of the declaration of the pandemic, he supports a patent waiver that would allow countries to make and sell cheap copies of vaccines that were invented elsewhere.
“We are living through an exceptional moment in history and must rise to the challenge,” he says. “Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business – both large and small – qualifies. We need to be on a war footing and it’s important to be clear about what is needed.”
The WTO meeting will discuss a proposal for a waiver of intellectual property rights – in this case, vaccine patents – put forward by South Africa and India and now supported by 100 countries. Member governments are split on the issue, broadly with lowand middle-income countries in support and rich countries opposed.
In the Guardian article, Tedros argues that the manufacturers will still get some reimbursement. “Waiving patents temporarily won’t mean innovators miss out. Like during the HIV crisis or in a war, companies will be paid royalties for the products they manufacture,” he says.
Pharmaceutical companies and governments in the US, UK and Europe are strongly opposed to the waiver, with or without compensation. They back the argument of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, based in Switzerland, that cutting companies’ returns is a disincentive to innovation.
Tedros says a range of measures must be considered. “Whether it’s dose sharing, tech transfer or voluntary licensing, as the WHO’s own Covid-19 Technology Access Pool [CTAP] initiative encourages, or waiving intellectual property rights, we need to pull out all the stops.”
Campaigners say none of those things are happening. On CTAP, which is supposed to encourage companies to share their technology with low- and middle-income countries, “only civil society are shouting about it. Not one company has engaged,” said Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, an adviser to the People’s
Vaccine Alliance.
The great hope for vaccines for most countries is Covax, the UN-backed initiative that aims to deliver 2bn doses by the end of the year. Just over a week ago, Ghana became the first country to take delivery of Covax doses. Ivory Coast and Colombia have also received some vaccines, says Tedros, who calls it “a moment of celebration that the miracle of science is being shared – but one that was offset by the shame that many countries hit hard during the pandemic have still not received any vaccines.”
Of the 225m vaccine doses administered so far, he says, “the vast majority have been in a handful of rich and vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait. A me-first approach might serve short-term political interests, but it is self-defeating and will lead to a protracted recovery, with trade and travel continuing to suffer. Any opportunity to beat this virus should be grabbed with both hands.”
New variants are appearing that are less susceptible to vaccines and more transmissible. “The threat is clear: as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it has more opportunities to mutate and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines everywhere. We could end up back at square one,” Tedros says.
He praises AstraZeneca for sharing its licences so that its vaccine can be manufactured around the world. However, campaigners say that even the AstraZeneca model is flawed. Under pressure to supply more doses to Europe, the company is shipping 10m doses to the UK from the Serum Institute of India, which is supposed to be the main supplier to low-income countries through Covax.
Anna Marriott of Oxfam, which backs the patent waiver, said next week’s WTO meeting would be “a big moment”. She said rich countries must stop stalling. “It is untenable,” she said. “To be seen to publicly kick the can down the road when we have extreme vaccine apartheid right now is out of tune with what we need.”
A Tanzanian mine that produced a flawless pink diamond for one of the Queen’s favourite brooches is investigating claims that security personnel have shot and assaulted illegal miners.
New allegations come months after a lawsuit alleging “serious” human rights abuses was filed against Petra Diamonds, the mine’s British owner, in the high court in London.
The London Stock Exchange-listed company, whose shares dropped 80% last year amid plummeting diamond prices, claims to be an “ethical diamonds” seller.
In September 2020, the British legal firm Leigh Day filed claims of human rights violations, including deaths, on behalf of 35 Tanzanians who allege that they, or their relatives, had been beaten or shot at by security guards at the Williamson diamond mine.
Petra, whose subsidiary Williamson Diamonds Ltd (WDL) owns 75% of the mine (the Tanzanian state owns the other 25%), said it took the allegations “extremely seriously” and last year launched an investigation through a specialist third party.
The firm launched another investigation into similar claims levelled in November 2020 by the British charity Rights and Accountability in Development (Raid). Based on research conducted between September 2019 and November 2020, Raid alleged that illegal miners had been detained, tortured and beaten by Williamson security guards, resulting in at least seven deaths.
Petra is now investigating further allegations by Raid involving security personnel between November 2020 and January 2021, among them shootings and assaults, the company said in a statement last month.
The firm said it had recorded 79 “incursions” at the 30 sq km (12 sq mile) Williamson site over the three-month period, 19 of which required “reasonable force” to remove illegal miners from the premises or for security to defend themselves.
Petra said it did not find evidence of unjustified use of force by security personnel or of injuries as described in Raid’s allegations. In one alleged incident in December 2020, one artisanal miner told Raid he was chased by a security guard from the mine’s private contractor, Zenith Security, who shot him at close range, breaking his jaw. When he regained consciousness, a guard was standing over him, he told Raid.
Petra said it could not verify this allegation. “No confrontations with illegal diggers were reported by Zenith or WDL on the night in question, with no injuries reported and no shots fired,” it said in a statement. “The firearm and rubber round registers maintained by Zenith also record that no baton rounds were fired on this night.”
In response to other allegations, the statement continued: “Regrettably the encounters between the security patrols, performed by guards from Zenith and the Tanzanian police, and the illegal diggers have resulted in injuries being suffered on all sides. Tragically, some deaths of illegal diggers have also been reported and are being investigated by the specialist external adviser as part of the broader investigation.”
Zenith Security did not respond to requests for comment.
Petra has suspended the mine’s chief of security and head of general services pending the investigation’s outcome, and has also put out a tender for a new security contractor to replace Zenith. The company said it has also provided security and human rights training to staff, implemented a grievance mechanism, and is looking into providing an artisanal tailings project, whereby local people can dig for diamonds in a controlled and formalised manner.
In a statement, Petra said: “The allegations of human rights abuses relating to the security operations of the Williamson mine in Tanzania are deeply concerning to the executive management team and the board. The newly formed Tunajali Committee, comprised entirely of independent non-executive directors, is undertaking a review of the output of the ongoing external investigation into the allegations and will make recommendations to address any findings. The company intends to make a further announcement on these issues by the end of March 2021.”
Raid’s executive director, Anneke
Van Woudenberg, called Petra’s findings a “stark illustration of the steps the company still needs to tackle [its human rights] problem.
“Its report of 19 incidents where force was used by its security guards in just the last few months urgently requires independent investigation to get to the bottom of what happened,” she said.
“To date, Raid found evidence of 10 deaths and 50 assaults by security forces at the Williamson mine since Petra took ownership [in 2009]. With such stark statistics, it is impossible to have confidence in Petra’s claim that it is producing ethical diamonds.”
The Williamson mine, which has been active since 1940, is in Shinyanga, one of Tanzania’s poorest regions. A 54.5-carat pink diamond found there was presented to Princess Elizabeth on her marriage in 1947. High-quality pink diamonds are valued at up to $700,000 (£503,000) a carat.