Thread by @astroehlein

Some small, pro-death rallies took place in a few EU member states at the weekend: euobserver.com/tickers/154100

But the biggest support for the deadly virus continues to come from the EU's policy of blocking wider vaccine production globally: politico.eu/article/vaccin…

Yes, the EU & its member states are supporting widespread vaccination at home but blocking it globally.

Billions of people around the world have not had even one shot yet, in large part because of the global vaccine shortage the EU enforces at the World Trade Organization.

For over 15 months, the EU has been blocking wider vaccine production globally by obstructing the #TRIPSwaiver, a proposal at the WTO to temporarily waive some intellectual property rules on vaccines & other health products.

Over 100 governments back the waiver: reliefweb.int/report/world/o…

The vast majority of expert opinion - scientists, health professional, etc - supports the waiver: nature.com/articles/d4158…

The EU refuses to listen to them.

Everyone knows that blocking vaccine production globally means prolonging the pandemic, so:

☠️ more death;

☠️ more suffering;

☠️ more time for new variants to emerge.

And "everybody" includes EU policy makers, of course. They know the consequences of their policy.

But the EU has been led in this by Germany, where a few areas are benefitting from the vaccine shortage that the EU is enforcing.

“our football pitches will remain in such a state that every player can play a clean pass” - Mainz mayor, Michael Ebling.

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1482292350235914243

In short, the EU is happy to let global suffering continue for the benefit of pharma monopolies and better football passes on a few sports fields in Germany.

But of course, it's not just that the EU is putting profits over people to benefit the pharma monopolies & add a bit of tax revenue to a few parts of Germany.

It's also ideological hard-headedness: we must support these trade rules because we always support these trade rules.

They forget - or, more likely, they want you to forget - that the trade rules themselves allow for such exceptions, and such exceptions have been made for pharma products in the past.

msfaccess.org/india-and-sout…

In these threads, I sometimes get accused of pushing some kind of radical agenda - as if using rules that exist at the WTO (and have been used before) to create a temporary waiver on a few health products to help end a global pandemic is from Das Kapital or something. 🙄

(And at the same time, I get accused by other sides of not being radical enough.)

But there's nothing extreme about this. A temporary patent waiver on a few health products to help end a global pandemic is simply smart policy.

What is extreme - and awful policy - is blocking wider vaccine production during a global pandemic, like the EU has been doing.

Leaders in the EU and UK now talk about "living with Covid" and "managing it". This is what they mean...

EU officials and leaders come out with the most absurd, easily refutable lies & disinformation to try to defend their deadly policy.

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1480801784344031236

These lies have been going on for months...

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1469272344527056898

And months...

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

They don't want you to know that loads of public money was poured into these vaccines, because then you would realise that you are not getting value for your money:

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1480783698098335745

And they definitely don't want you to know that there are over 100 qualified manufacturers out there that could be making mRNA vaccines - if they were allowed to - to help deal with the global vaccine shortage.
hrw.org/news/2021/12/1…

The fact that no one could think of one piece of evidence to counter this tweet says a lot: It seems the EU doesn't want to end the pandemic; they want to "manage it" for profits in Europe.

https://twitter.com/astroehlein/status/1480107864463138820

At this point, the only allies the virus has left are the EU, UK, Switzerland and those anti-vaxer protesters in the streets.

And those governments are doing far more damage with their deadly policy than those protesters are doing with their stupid slogans.

Enough is enough. The EU is outnumbered by governments that actually want to fight the virus rather than profit from it.

We need the #TRIPSwaiver for a #PeoplesVaccine.

🇪🇺 EU citizens should sign this online initiative: bit.ly/3tFgvDV

Also, please follow & support the organisations involved in the @peoplesvaccine Alliance, listed here:

twitter.com/i/lists/147107…

The World Health Organization has called on governments to put human rights at the heart of their pandemic response, including by ensuring universal access to vaccines, therapeutics & health technologies.

The EU has been rejecting the idea for 15 months: bit.ly/30edP7h

The @EU_Commission's "white saviour trope" propaganda continued at the weekend...

381 million (if true) may sound like a lot, but global need is for BILLIONS of doses: BILLIONS of people have not had even 1 jab yet.

We need wider vaccine production, but the EU is blocking it.