Thread by @astroehlein

From the beginning of the pandemic, the EU, UK & other rich governments have been blocking & delaying wider vaccine production globally by obstructing the #TRIPSwaiver, a proposal to temporarily waive some intellectual property rules on vaccines & other health products.

Why?

The EU (led by Germany in this) has produced misinformation & outright lies to defend their deadly policy.

These arguments have been debunked comprehensively:

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

Again & again:

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1385483442905919489

For a long time:

https://twitter.com/MSF_access/status/1308334943202836480

From the beginning, the EU, UK & others have been ignoring the request of the majority of countries in the world, as well as the advice of public health professionals and medical experts.

Indeed, the #TRIPSwaiver is supported by:

100+ governments: reliefweb.int/report/world/o…

Past presidents & prime ministers and Nobel laureates: project-syndicate.org/commentary/pre…

NGO experts calling for a #PeoplesVaccine: 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:

https://twitter.com/samiraraf/status/1388169919603302407

US lawmakers: thehill.com/policy/healthc…

But the EU arrogantly pretend to know better than all these global voices & all these health experts.

The European Commission is so arrogant that it refuses to even listen to them, meeting almost exclusively with the pharma companies & their lobbyists.
corporateeurope.org/en/2021/05/com…

It's hard to understand the mentality of political leaders who look at a global pandemic in which millions are dying and say:

"How can we help our friends make money from this?"

Yet that's the leaders we have in the EU, UK & a few other places right now.

Even the stark reality that their profits-first approach is so obviously failing won't shift them from their ideology of greed.

💥 Only 12% of the world is vaccinated.

💥 At this rate, it will take years - decades, in fact - to reach everyone.

oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

Our leaders try to convince citizens that the slow pace of global vaccinations doesn't matter - that only vaccinations at home matter - as if humanity is not connected.

It's a deadly lie.

➡️ Grotesquely unfair to the global south.

➡️ Self-destructive for the global north.

The inequality is obvious:

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

🔸 0.3% of doses have been administered in low-income countries.
nytimes.com/interactive/20…

The self-destructive nature of EU & UK policy is also obvious.

By helping pharma companies limit vaccine production, our leaders are giving the virus more time to produce new variants that could be:

☠️ More deadly.

☠️ More contagious.

☠️ Resistant to current vaccines.

The longer the pandemic, the more chance for the emergence of new variants...

Public health experts have been warning about it: oxfam.org/en/press-relea…

Pharmaceutical companies are "betting" on it: bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

There's some evidence that the efficacy of vaccines may already be falling: reuters.com/world/middle-e…

(Still, get vaccinated if you can. Sadly, most people don't have access to vaccines.)

Pharma companies make no secret of the likely need for 3rd shot boosters and new recipes to address new variants: cnbc.com/2021/04/15/pfi…

As long as pharma monopolies control the level of vaccine production, they will do so in their own interest, and this is where we will be, all with the support of the EU, the UK & others:

⚠️ Serial profits for the pharma monopolies.

⚠️ Endless pandemic for humanity.

If you're thinking that this all sounds a bit like a neocolonialist approach, you're not alone.

And there's a thread for that:

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1412277419147411460