A 2022 found that vaccine hoarding through pharmaceutical companies would claim more than a million lives by the end of 2021.
The World Health Organization’s declaration on Friday that COVID-19 is no longer a global fitness emergency prompted new calls to be informed of the pandemic and, in particular, expand access to disease prevention and remedy in the future.
“COVID-19 may no longer rank as the highest point of foreign emergency, but the virus has not gone away,” said Dr. Mohga Kamal-Yanni, joint policy leader of the People’s Vaccine Alliance, a global coalition running for medical technologies that help save it and respond to COVID-19 and pandemics in the long term.
“There are billions of other people in emerging countries who still don’t have affordable testing and treatment for COVID-19,” Kamal-Yanni said. drugs. “
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that while the company has documented nearly 7 million deaths from the virus, “we know the figure is several times higher, at least 20 million. “A study published last year in Nature and cited by the People’s Vaccine Alliance estimates that 1. 3 million fewer people would have died by the end of 2021 if COVID-19 vaccines were distributed equitably.
“Rich countries have behaved shamefully in this pandemic, holding pharmaceutical monopolies and confiscating vaccines, tests and medicines for their other peoples, pushing emerging countries to the bottom,” Kamal-Yanni said. “And pharmaceutical corporations are the biggest winners, making the most profit from a unique medical product in history, while other people have died without access. “
Before WHO’s announcement after Johnson’s annual general meetings
“Over the past 3 years, Big Pharma executives have noticed their profits skyrocket, while other people in low- and middle-income countries still struggle to access life-saving medicines,” Nelson noted. “While their efforts to expand COVID-19 vaccines will have to be acknowledged that it is evident that pharmaceutical corporations have failed in their daily human rights work to ensure similar access, and continue to do so. Why don’t investors hold them accountable?
“With reports that Pfizer and Moderna are contemplating quadrupling the value of the COVID-19 vaccine in some countries, only 25% of other people in low-income countries are now fully vaccinated and millions are still waiting for the first dose,” he continued. calling the shooting prize “one of the worst examples of global inequality to date. “
According to Nelson, “it is time for investors to ensure that these corporations make structural adjustments with immediate effect to ensure that the world can jointly face pandemics in the long term, leaving no one behind. “
Kamal-Yanni argued that solving long-term crises will require more active participation by others in low-income countries.
“Institutions established for emerging countries, such as COVAX and ACT-A, have failed to involve emerging countries in their creation or decision-making, and have not provided an equitable reaction,” he said. “For long-term pandemics, preparedness and response will have to be directed across the Global South, rather than creating more donor-dominated global platforms. “
“People in emerging countries deserve to no longer wait for the ‘goodwill’ of rich countries, nor the charitable movements of pharmaceutical companies,” he said. Some wisdom and generation are shared, barriers to intellectual property are removed, and medical studies and production in emerging countries are eliminated.
Negotiators aim to finalize a draft pandemic treaty for their attention through the 77th World Health Assembly in 2024.
“As with HIV, the global response to COVID-19 has failed the world’s most vulnerable, prioritizing the benefits of providence over public health,” Kamal-Yanni said. structural adjustments to global health. Or, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of this pandemic in the next. “
Dr. Uché Blackstock, a former professor of emergency medicine who works to end prejudice and racism in health care, tweeted Friday that “it really is unfortunate that nationally and globally, aside from vaccines, for which I am indeed grateful to the science: there have been no significant improvements/investments in our public fitness infrastructure to keep other people and their communities safe.
The COVID-19 crisis may have led to large investments in fitness workers, protections and paid time off, Blackstock said in reaction to the WHO’s announcement. .
“This is OUR chance to do better!!” he added, also circulating a chart shared by Dr. Madhu Pai showing that the other 2. 3 billion people who are not yet vaccinated against COVID-19 are largely concentrated in low incomes. and middle-income countries.
Pai also pointed to an “important” paper Thursday in Science titled “Cascading Failures in COVID-19 Vaccine Equity. “
Noting that “the proliferation of equity rhetoric appears to be accompanied by corresponding rates of progress in reducing global disparities,” a trio of U. S. -based experts said in the U. S. The distribution of vaccines” during the last 3 years “requires a collective balance”.
“Expansive rhetoric and empty promises have an unexpected lifespan,” they added. “If we want equity to have a value other than the allegorical one, we want to take the concept more seriously, starting with a disciplined and planned examination of the cascade of the capital deficit. “
As Common Dreams reported on the COVID-19 crisis, experts warned that preventing pandemics in the long term requires not only innovations in fitness systems, but also global land-use reforms, from conservation efforts to adjustments in agricultural practices, to prevent the spread of diseases from animals to animals. Human.
Jessica Corbett is one at Common Dreams.
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