Thread by @astroehlein

#Omicron is the latest reminder that global #VaccineEquity is essential...

No one is protected from COVID-19 until everyone is protected.

#TRIPSwaiver
#PeoplesVaccine

(cartoon by @turnercartoons)

hrw.org/news/2021/12/0…

The pandemic has laid bare the dangers of having manufacturing capacity for life-saving vaccines concentrated in a few countries where governments have refused to prioritize and mandate sharing intellectual property and technology for rapid diversified and global production.

For over a year, rich countries have been blocking an intellectual property waiver (#TRIPSwaiver) at the World Trade Organization & concentrating vaccine production in the US & Europe.

Blocking wider vaccine production globally has prolonged devastating cycles of COVID-19 surges, deaths, travel restrictions & lockdowns, allowing the virus to mutate & spread.

For over a year, the governments of South Africa and India have led efforts at the WTO to promote more equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics by waiving some provisions of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

The approval of a #TRIPSwaiver would temporarily suspend certain intellectual property and global trade rules for health products needed for the COVID-19 response.

The EU, UK & Switzerland have repeatedly blocked the #TRIPSwaiver, inhibiting widespread manufacturing & distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to low- & middle-income countries.

Yes, they are DELIBERATELY BLOCKING wider vaccine production during a global pandemic.

Deadly madness.

The result of this deadly policy by the EU, UK & Switzerland is plain to see...

While nearly 65% of the people in high-income countries are vaccinated, just 8% in poor countries are.

theguardian.com/world/2021/dec…

Every day there are 6 times more

💉💉💉💉💉💉 BOOSTERS being administered globally

than

💉 FIRST DOSES in low-income countries.

nytimes.com/live/2021/11/1…

As a result of the failure of wealthy nations to share access to vaccines, COVID-19 is continuing to cause severe illness and death THAT VACCINES COULD HAVE PREVENTED.

The US-based companies Moderna, Pfizer, and Johnson & Johnson quickly developed lifesaving vaccines with substantial support from the US government; approximately $1 billion in public funds each to Moderna and J&J for COVID-19 vaccine research and development.

The US National Institutes of Health funded foundational innovations that made Moderna’s and BioNTech-Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines possible.

But these companies haven’t shared their technology with the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Pool or mRNA Technology Transfer Hub, limiting the ability of companies in other parts of the world to produce more vaccines for the global response.

Governments have a collective responsibility to take steps to prevent threats to public health and ensure access to medical care for those who need it, and to cooperate to share the benefits of science.

All governments should work to enact a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights (#TRIPSwaiver).

Until vaccines and therapeutics are distributed equitably, the end of the COVID-19 pandemic will be nowhere in sight.

Limiting global vaccine production - which, again, is the DELIBERATE policy of the EU, UK & Switzerland during a global pandemic - means we're stuck here in this endless, deadly loop...

EU & UK leaders know full well that blocking wider vaccine production will prolong the pandemic, meaning:

☠️ more death;

☠️ more suffering;

☠️ more chances for new variants to arise.

But those leaders simply have other priorities: pharma monopoly profits, not human lives

There's hope the EU, at least, might change its deadly policy of blocking wider vaccine production during a global pandemic.

Germany, which has been central to the EU policy, has a new government & new health minister, @Karl_Lauterbach, who could help.

https://twitter.com/WenzelMichalski/status/1467839645572554752

How many have died in the pandemic?

It's over 5 million officially but really much more.

HOW MANY MILLIONS MORE WILL DIE before the EU, UK & Switzerland accept that their policy of blocking wider vaccine production is a disaster?

25 million?

50?

economist.com/graphic-detail…

It is unconscionable that wealthy nations are reducing lifesaving health care to a tradeable commodity and using their power at the WTO to make human health subservient to pharmaceutical industry and trade interests.

A powerful minority of governments has cynically prioritized their own and domestic companies’ economic interests while global infections and deaths soar.

The pandemic is:

🌎🌍🌏 GLOBAL 🌍🌏🌎

The solution must also be:

🌏🌎🌍 GLOBAL 🌍🌎🌏

#TRIPSwaiver
#PeoplesVaccine