PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle. United States President Joe Biden. French President Emmanuel Macron. The governments of India and South Africa. They want intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines waived.
The list grows longer as more leaders and prominent individuals join the call for open access to the vaccine.
As several countries relax health protocols and plan massive outdoor celebrations to mark freedom from the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, there are low-income and developing countries such as the Philippines that are just starting their inoculation campaigns. The vaccination of their peoples has been hampered by a lack of supply of vaccines against the Sars-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19. Production and delivery of vaccines, whether donated by the World Health Organization (WHO) or bought from pharmaceutical companies that make them, have been delayed.
In the Philippines, timetables for vaccine delivery have been scrapped as supply turned intermittent. Information on their arrival is announced as the shipment is about to arrive. Vaccination schedules get dictated by the trickling in of supply.
President Biden shocked pharmaceutical companies last week when he issued his call for them to waive intellectual property rights to boost worldwide production of their vaccines and meet the demand to inoculate more people in the world. French leader Macron supported Biden, the same with Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan who were among the latest to support open access to vaccines. Their statements came after India and South Africa led the move for the waiver to ensure “fair, equitable and affordable access.”
I joined the call last year of the “People’s Vaccine” coalition of health and humanitarian organizations against monopolies on the vaccine. The coalition led by Oxfam International, Amnesty International and the United Nations supported the WHO campaign for greater access to vaccines. The coalition wants the vaccine to be available to all, everywhere, free of charge. To achieve this, it asked pharmaceutical companies to suspend their intellectual property rights.
I was approached by Oxfam Philippines last year to issue a statement of support to the “People’s Vaccine” campaign. Oxfam sought people who had survived Covid-19 to speak of their experience battling the disease and on the need to have open access to the vaccines. A video was created to carry our testimonies. That places me in good company with world leaders and royalty who see the unfairness of having only one out of 500 people in poorer countries getting vaccinated against one in four people in rich countries getting jabbed.
But more than the distinction of being in good company is the need to achieve results because the longer it takes for vaccines to reach the people of poor and developing countries such as the Philippines, the harder it gets for the world to end the pandemic.
As the WHO continues to emphasize — none of us will be safe until everyone is safe. A global pandemic requires the world to end it and this can be done through a “People’s Vaccine.” The world needs results.