I find it very hard to understand the mentality of people who look at a global pandemic in which millions are dying and say: how can I help powerful corporations make money from this?
And yet, this is exactly what leaders in the EU, US, UK & others have been doing.
These countries' leaders have been blocking wider vaccine production globally by obstructing the #TRIPSwaiver, a proposal at the WTO to temporarily waive some intellectual property rules for medical products.
This creates vaccine scarcity, which drives up prices for the corps.
They may try to fool themselves with nonsense arguments, like:
- Corps need to be incentivised, when in fact, it was billions in our taxes that incentivised them last time.
- The waiver would not instantly lead to new production, when that is in fact an argument against delay
But the truth is that the continued profits-first approach to the global pandemic by the EU, US, UK, Australia & others is nothing more than the most powerful helping the most powerful at the expense of the most powerless.
The profits-first approach to the global pandemic by the EU, US, UK, etc is not working for us.
Only about 3.6% of us have been fully vaccinated.
Some 70% need to be.
At this rate, it will take years.
And scarce vaccines mean low-income countries get little or nothing.
Read more about governments with a profits-first approach to the global pandemic that are blocking wider vaccine production:
EU: hrw.org/news/2021/03/2…
US: hrw.org/news/2021/04/2…
Australia: hrw.org/news/2021/05/0…
Brazil: hrw.org/news/2021/03/0…
The rest of us want an end to the failing, profits-first approach to the pandemic. The #TRIPSwaiver is supported by:
100+ governments: reliefweb.int/report/world/o…
Past presidents & prime ministers and Nobel laureates: project-syndicate.org/commentary/pre…
Other NGOs: peoplesvaccine.org
The #TRIPSwaiver is also supported by:
Medical experts: thelancet.com/journals/lance…
The head of the World Health Organization: theguardian.com/world/2021/mar…
Hundreds of European lawmakers: hrw.org/news/2021/04/2…
Also:
US lawmakers: thehill.com/policy/healthc…
The failing, profits-first approach to the global pandemic by the EU, US, UK, Australia, Japan, Switzerland & others creates huge windfalls for the pharma companies, but it's prolonging the pandemic for the rest of us.
theguardian.com/business/2021/…
A policy of prolonging the pandemic means:
⬛️ Years of more death;
⬛️ Years of more economic disruption;
⬛️ Years of more opportunity for new variants to emerge that are more deadly, more virulent, and/or resistant to the current vaccines.
oxfam.org/en/press-relea…
And that means you.
You.
Whoever you are, wherever you live.
You are put at greater risk by this failing, profits-first approach to the global pandemic by the EU, US, UK, Australia, etc.
Even if you're one of the lucky few who have been vaccinated.
The moral failure of governments in the EU, US, UK, Australia, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil, Japan, etc is horrific.
That it's also a practical failure - global vaccine rollout is too slow to work - only deepens the disaster.
"Profits first" will not end the global pandemic.
See (and follow) also...
The official EU Citizens' Initiative on this has jumped another 6,000 signatures in one day. Now over 181,000!
❗️ Keep SHARING it, please ❗️
➡️ noprofitonpandemic.eu
The European Commission must act to make vaccines & treatments a global public good.
Follow: @right2cure
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.