{"id":3507,"date":"2022-06-15T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T12:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=3507"},"modified":"2022-06-15T12:15:02","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T12:15:02","slug":"we-urgently-require-vaccine-patent-waivers-to-save-global-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/we-urgently-require-vaccine-patent-waivers-to-save-global-health\/","title":{"rendered":"We urgently require vaccine patent waivers to save global health."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

But the new vaccine patent waiver proposal being pushed by the European Union and the head of the World Trade Organization is worse than no deal at all.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global health is on its deathbed. For almost two years, a handful of rich countries have resisted a life-saving\u00a0proposal\u00a0tabled by India and South Africa that could speed up global COVID-19 vaccination, making a mockery of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Now, these countries are attempting to stitch up the process in order to put the profits of big pharma over people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This month, a crucial and long-delayed meeting will take place at the WTO on the rules governing vaccine formulas. After two years of failed negotiations, the WTO needed an agreement to be reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of these meetings, a damaging\u00a0new proposal\u00a0has emerged that is being pushed by the European Union and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This proposal would be worse than none at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India and South Africa\u2019s original proposal, for an intellectual property rights waiver related to coronavirus vaccines and treatments, would speedily democratise COVID-19 vaccine and drug production; the new one would not. In fact, it would actually add more barriers to countries seeking to produce or import generic supplies. Yet this is the text that is currently being negotiated at the WTO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to see this as anything other than a stitch-up. By pushing this new proposal, the WTO is blocking discussion of a return to the original waiver (despite its massive support) and giving too much voice and power to the rich countries protecting the interests of pharma. In a desperate attempt to get an outcome \u2013 and save face for the WTO \u2013 both democracy and a meaningful outcome are being sacrificed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When South Africa and India spearheaded the initiative in 2020, more than 100 countries \u2013 including my own, Mexico \u2013 joined them in demanding the right to technologies that could protect our people. Our efforts met fierce resistance, especially from the EU and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The coronavirus will not be controlled by a mighty swarm of scientists. Its end will be slow and gradual and will require sustained coordination among nations to execute the most appropriate public health interventions for each context and time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the Omicron variant caught the world off-guard earlier this year, John Nkengasong, the director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, wrote that \u201cthe world must finally learn from past mistakes\u201d. That resonated with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COVID-19 is not my first pandemic. When the H1N1 influenza virus shut down Mexico City and swept the world in 2009, I played a central role on the Mexican health ministry\u2019s team that worked around the clock to curb the virus\u2019s spread. We were prepared for many things \u2013 infection surges, supply shortages, and communication mishaps \u2013 but not political opportunism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The EU plan protects everything that is wrong with the current international health order. It allows big pharmaceutical companies to not share life-saving technology, keeps numerous countries of the Global South in the begging queue, and pretends that borders can keep out mutations. Their proposed text is nothing more than a PR stunt intended to kill off the possibility of a genuine intellectual property waiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n