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Of: TT
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Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP / TT
Work on the development of a vaccine at Imperial College London. July image.
Several developed countries, which together make up about an eighth of the world’s population, have given up more than half of the promised doses of future coronavirus vaccines.
This is stated by the aid organization Oxfam, which has taken a closer look at the agreements that the countries of the world have concluded with the pharmaceutical companies that have advanced the most in the development of vaccines.
“Access to a life-saving vaccine shouldn’t depend on where you live or how much money you have,” says Robert Silverman of Oxfam America.
According to the aid organization, the five companies – Astra Zeneca, Gamaleja / Sputnik, Moderna, Pfizer and Sinovac – together can produce 5.9 billion doses of vaccine. That would be enough for three billion people, as the vaccine will likely have to be given twice.
Several countries have already purchased an overwhelming proportion of these doses, 5.3 billion. More than half, 2.7 billion doses, are reserved by the world’s rich countries and territories, from the United States and the European Union to Hong Kong and Japan. Densely populated countries like India, China, Indonesia, and Brazil have together purchased just 2.6 billion doses.
Oxfam therefore advocates a “popular vaccine”, which can be free and distributed free of charge to those who need it.
“It will only be possible if pharmaceutical companies allow the vaccine to be manufactured as widely as possible by sharing their knowledge without patent requirements rather than protecting their monopolies and selling to the highest bidder,” the organization writes, stating that the cost of developing a The vaccine for all the people on earth is just under one percent of what the pandemic costs to the overall global economy.
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