[ad_1]
By Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director
The first injections of the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered in the UK this week, a triumph for the British people and a remarkable achievement for everyone involved. This historic event, rightly celebrated with much relief and fanfare, shows what can be done when investment and political will combine to overcome a threat to public health. These efforts will undoubtedly save thousands, if not millions, of lives.
However, we are far from claiming victory. New statistics released today by the People’s Vaccine Alliance show that 9 out of 10 people in poor countries will miss the COVID-19 vaccine next year. Once again, the poorest countries are at the end of the queue and will have to see many more people die before a vaccine is affordable for them.
This tragically echoes the early days of the AIDS response, when treatment was only available to the rich, while poorer countries had to wait years before they could offer their people the same life-saving medicine. This was a preventable tragedy and we cannot allow this to happen with the COVID-19 vaccine.
Rich countries have acquired enough doses to vaccinate their entire population almost three times over the next year. In fact, wealthy nations that make up only 14% of the world’s population have purchased 53% of all the most promising vaccines so far.
Our best chance to stay safe from COVID-19 is to have vaccines, diagnoses, and treatments available to everyone. No one is safe from COVID-19 until everyone is safe. The response to COVID-19 is reinforcing existing inequalities within and between countries and the global economy will continue to suffer as long as much of the world does not have access to a vaccine.
The current system allows pharmaceutical corporations to use government funds for research, but they maintain a monopoly on drugs and keep their technology secret to increase profits. As we learned from the HIV crisis, this monopoly costs many lives. If history has taught us anything, it is that pharmaceutical corporations create and protect monopolies to maximize profits as a goal superior to improving public health.
Things are moving fast on the vaccine front, but efforts to improve access to a vaccine are moving too slowly. The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine we’ve seen has already received UK approval and is likely to receive approval from other countries, including the US and the EU, in a few days. Two other potential vaccines, from Moderna and Oxford (in association with AstraZeneca) are expected to be submitted or await regulatory approval. The Russian and Chinese vaccines have announced positive results in the trials. However, all doses of Moderna and 96% of Pfizer / BioNTech have been purchased by rich countries.
In contrast, Oxford / AstraZeneca has committed to providing 64% of its doses to people in developing countries. However, despite their actions to increase supply, they may only reach 18% of the world’s population next year at the most.
We must have a #PeoplesVaccine vaccine, not a for-profit vaccine. Unless governments and the pharmaceutical industry take urgent action to ensure that sufficient doses are produced, COVID will continue to expose existing inequalities. Pharmaceutical corporations and research institutions working on Covid19 vaccines must share vaccine-related science, technology, and intellectual property to maximize production from other quality producers. This will allow enough safe and effective doses to be given for everyone who needs vaccines at the same time. And there is already a global mechanism that facilitates this exchange: the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Technology Access Group (C-TAP).
I remember the days of the creation of the Drug Patent Fund for HIV drugs, which resulted in the production of millions of doses of affordable antiretrovirals currently used by people in developing countries. So we have an example to learn from and make C-TAP work for the millions waiting for a vaccine.
Governments must do everything in their power to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines become a global public good, at no cost to the public, distributed fairly, and based on need not ability to pay. A first step would be to support South Africa and India’s proposal to the Council of the World Trade Organization this week to give up intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments until all are protected.
The campaign for a #Vaccine for the towns is gaining momentum. Last week in the US, more than 100 high-level leaders from public health, religious, racial justice, and labor organizations joined former members of Congress, economists, and artists to sign a public letter calling on the president-elect Biden to support a popular vaccine. In the EU, a broad coalition of health workers unions, NGOs, activist groups, student associations and health experts launched a European citizens’ initiative for a popular vaccine.
Now is the time for pharmaceutical companies and governments to step up and ensure that a COVID-19 vaccine is available to everyone, everywhere, free at the point of use. Only then will the world begin to turn the tide of the COVID-19 crisis and ensure that everyone can stay safe and prosper.
UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations — UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank — and works closely with global and national partners. to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
[ad_2]
