Thread by @astroehlein

Amid the ongoing global scarcity of vaccines, the European Commission only meets with big pharma & its allies.

No one who questions pharma's monopoly on patents is allowed in.

This Commission is dedicated to boosting pharma profits, not saving lives.

corporateeurope.org/en/2021/05/com…

Look, I mean, I get it. It's fun to meet with rich and powerful CEOs. It makes you feel more powerful and important yourself.

But, @EU_commission, is your job simply to make the rich richer? To help the powerful become even more powerful while billions of the powerless suffer?

The @EU_commission unquestioningly accepts and parrots every debunked argument that the pharma companies feed them.

It's embarrassing.

And deadly.

We're over 4 months into global rollout new, and only 4% of the world has been vaccinated.

It's estimated that 70% is needed for herd immunity, so at this rate, it will take years.

We all know that the EU's favoured approach - putting pharma profits first - is not working.

We all know the problem is vaccine scarcity.

We all know we need greater production capacity.

Yet the EU, UK & a dwindling few other governments on the wrong side of history continue to insist on blocking wider vaccine production globally by obstructing the #TRIPSwaiver.

Repeating pharma PR, EU leaders say it would take time to bring new production online.

But they have been blocking it for 7 months now.

We could be 7 months ahead of where we are today, if rich governments had listened to experts when the waiver was first proposed in October.

October - when the #TRIPSwaiver was formally proposed - was over 2 million COVID deaths ago...

worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Experts say it would take 3-4 months to bring new production online, but even if it took 7 months and no deaths since October could have been saved by it, you have to look ahead. Deaths & suffering & economic disruption keep coming…

And we're 7 months behind where we could be.

The EU, UK & a few others are prolonging the pandemic, perhaps thinking a longer global pandemic won't matter as long as they vaccinate their own people.

But the profits-first approach is both selfish & self-destructive. Time is not on our side.

oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

Devastation in India today: hrw.org/news/2021/05/1…

Looming disaster in Nepal tomorrow: hrw.org/news/2021/05/1…

Who's next?

This is very much the danger.

I think we're already seeing it, in fact...

https://twitter.com/paimadhu/status/1391552028879560704

The EU policy towards the global pandemic - helping to restrict vaccine production to maximise profits for the pharma companies - will keep us all in this eternal loop of death and economic disruption.

➡️ Short-sighted.

➡️ Selfish.

➡️ Self-destructive.

Please:

1⃣ Get vaccinated if you can.

‼️ But realise this isn't enough.

2⃣ Pressure your government to support wider vaccine production globally.

SIGN & SHARE these official petitions…

🇬🇧 UK citizens: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/5640…

🇪🇺 EU citizens: noprofitonpandemic.eu