Thread by @astroehlein

#G7 on vaccines:

➡️ They wanted to pledge 1 billion doses by the end of next year.

➡️ They failed, pledging only 870 million.

💥 The world needs at least 11 BILLION.

The good news is that 2 of the 7 now understand that wider production is needed.

politico.eu/article/europe…

Everyone knows the current problem of vaccine scarcity is due to insufficient production.

The ideological hardliners against boosting production globally are now the European Commission, which seems to listen to Germany more than any other EU Member State.

And yes, ideology.

While the EU has finally backed down and agreed to allow text-based negotiations proceed on the #TRIPSwaiver proposal, the European Commission remains opposed to the proposal, which would relax patent rules to expand vaccine production globally.

The arguments the European Commission uses to oppose vaccine patent waivers have been debunked over and over.

That they continue to put them forward shows not only dishonesty but arrogance.

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1400352366134796295

There's a reason that the vast majority of countries in the world support vaccine patent waivers, along with medical experts, global health experts, the European Parliament, Nobel laureates, and top scientific journals...
nature.com/articles/d4158…

But for the European Commission, sadly, what scientists and health professionals say doesn't matter.

They are focused on one thing in this global pandemic: helping the pharma industry.

They won't even hear anyone who has a different opinion.
corporateeurope.org/en/2021/05/com…

The pharma companies have their own interest, of course, and that is to extract as much profit as possible from their products.

They set production levels to suit themselves.

The scarcity of vaccines globally has helped them keep prices high.

But the world needs more.

The European Commission's ideological insistence on standard intellectual property rules - even in the completely non-standard situation of a global pandemic - has helped pharma companies, but it's been a disaster for the rest of us.

The "business as usual" approach is deadly.

The evidence is also clear that "business as usual" is not working: we are not producing enough vaccine doses fast enough.

The fight over scarce doses means rich governments have rushed ahead in vaccinations.

85% of shots that have gone into arms worldwide have been administered in high- and upper-middle-income countries.

Only 0.3% of doses have been administered in low-income countries.

nytimes.com/interactive/20…

And after about 6 months of vaccinations, we've only vaccinated about 6% of people worldwide...

It's not good enough.
ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-…

Now, if you are lucky enough to have been vaccinated already, you may look at all these numbers and think, "I'm alright, Jack".

This is perhaps what the European Commission and the German government hope EU citizens will think, so they can continue pushing their awful policy.

The scarcity of vaccines means a longer pandemic, so, not only:

☠️ More death.

☠️ More economic pain.

But also:

☠️ More chance for more dangerous variants to emerge that are more deadly, more easily spread and/or resistant to current vaccines.
oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

By the way, the pharma companies know this. They are preparing for new recipes to address new variants, as well as 3rd shot boosters.

This will further increase global demand, but production facilities are insufficient even for current demand.
cnbc.com/2021/04/15/pfi…

So, rich governments will keep fighting over short supplies…

And most of the world will continue to have nothing…

A little charity from the rich governments in the form of a small number of donated doses over the span a year or two is NOT going to solve this.

This is where we will be until global vaccine production is big enough and fast enough.

This is where EU (and UK) policy is driving us.

Tell me: who benefits from this?

Certainly not you and me.

See also...

https://twitter.com/Oxfam/status/1404080449689997319