Mar 04, 2021
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged global powers to "pull out all the stops" to defeat the coronavirus pandemic including by waiving Big Pharma's vaccine patents to ensure equitable access to the drugs.
"Sharing doses, boosting manufacturing by removing barriers, and ensuring that we use data effectively to target left-behind communities is key to ending this crisis," he wrote in an op-ed published at The Guardian.
He lamented that "the vast majority" of the 225 million administered Covid-19 vaccine doses "have been in a handful of rich and vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait." Such a "me-first" approach, he said, is ultimately "self-defeating."
That's because "as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it has more opportunities to mutate and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines everywhere," wrote Tedros. "We could end up back at square one."
To prevent such a scenario, the WHO chief laid out a number of possible steps. "Whether it's dose sharing, tech transfer, or voluntary licensing, as the WHO's own Covid-19 Technology Access Pool initiative encourages, or waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested, we need to pull out all the stops," he stated.
\u201cOUT NOW: @WHO leader @DrTedros has made a powerful call for "waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested."\n\nHe is right.\n\nWe need to put peoples' lives over self-defeating big pharma monopolies.\n\nWe need a #PeoplesVaccine https://t.co/022oov3UXM\u201d— The People's Vaccine (@The People's Vaccine) 1614951202
"Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic, which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business--both large and small--qualifies. We need to be on a war footing, " he wrote.
While welcoming "significant" moves by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Sanofi to share vaccine technology--as well as Johnson & Johnson and Merck's partnership to boost vaccine supplies--Tedros said that further actions are needed to stamp out the crisis, including waiving patents.
Framing the challenge of a global vaccination effort as immense but not insurmountable, Tedros wrote that "if we can put a rover on Mars, we can surely produce billions of vaccines and save lives on earth."
Tedros further noted that other global threats like the climate crisis require international cooperation, so "the faster we can vaccinate, the faster we will be able to focus on fighting" those issues.
"The future is ours to write," he wrote.
Tedros' comments were welcomed by Oxfam International, a member of the People's Vaccine Alliance.
"Dr. Tedros is right," the social justice group said. "It's time to end vaccine monopolies. We need a #PeoplesVaccine."
Other advocates agree:
\u201cAfter governments invested billions in COVID-19 vaccine development, the drugs will be protected by private proprietary rights. \n\nWe must make vaccines available everywhere if we are going to crush the virus anywhere. https://t.co/6w6IueAhKb #PeoplesVaccine\u201d— Global Trade Watch (@Global Trade Watch) 1614025832
The health leader's new op-ed followed growing demands from social justice and healthcare organizations that the World Trade Organization lift its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rules to allow for wider manufacturing of the vaccines.
At a Thursday protest outside the WTO headquarters in Geneva, activists with Doctors Without Borders displayed a banner reading "No Covid Monopolies--Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver."
\u201cToday at the @WTO we laid out our message to governments blocking efforts to make #COVID19 medical tools more available.\n\nJoin the call for No Patents, No Monopolies in a Pandemic.\n\n#TRIPSwaiver\n#NoCovidMonopolies\u201d— MSF Access Campaign (@MSF Access Campaign) 1614874764
In the U.S., President Joe Biden recently faced a call from hundreds of national groups to back the call for an emergency waiver of the trade organization's intellectual property (IP) rules.
As Common Dreams noted Thursday, "Despite garnering support from more than 100 countries, the waiver push has run up against opposition from powerful nations such as the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, which have thwarted the will of a supermajority of WTO member nations in order to ensure that pharmaceutical corporations retain monopoly control over coronavirus vaccine technology."
That opposition was denounced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who tweeted last month, "Denying poor countries the Covid vaccine to allow Pharma to profit from IP is cruel and morally bankrupt."
"This should be a no-brainer," wrote Khanna. "President Biden must grant the waiver so that millions around the world can develop the vaccine and save lives."
Join Us: News for people demanding a better world
Common Dreams is powered by optimists who believe in the power of informed and engaged citizens to ignite and enact change to make the world a better place. We're hundreds of thousands strong, but every single supporter makes the difference. Your contribution supports this bold media model—free, independent, and dedicated to reporting the facts every day. Stand with us in the fight for economic equality, social justice, human rights, and a more sustainable future. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover the issues the corporate media never will. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged global powers to "pull out all the stops" to defeat the coronavirus pandemic including by waiving Big Pharma's vaccine patents to ensure equitable access to the drugs.
"Sharing doses, boosting manufacturing by removing barriers, and ensuring that we use data effectively to target left-behind communities is key to ending this crisis," he wrote in an op-ed published at The Guardian.
He lamented that "the vast majority" of the 225 million administered Covid-19 vaccine doses "have been in a handful of rich and vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait." Such a "me-first" approach, he said, is ultimately "self-defeating."
That's because "as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it has more opportunities to mutate and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines everywhere," wrote Tedros. "We could end up back at square one."
To prevent such a scenario, the WHO chief laid out a number of possible steps. "Whether it's dose sharing, tech transfer, or voluntary licensing, as the WHO's own Covid-19 Technology Access Pool initiative encourages, or waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested, we need to pull out all the stops," he stated.
\u201cOUT NOW: @WHO leader @DrTedros has made a powerful call for "waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested."\n\nHe is right.\n\nWe need to put peoples' lives over self-defeating big pharma monopolies.\n\nWe need a #PeoplesVaccine https://t.co/022oov3UXM\u201d— The People's Vaccine (@The People's Vaccine) 1614951202
"Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic, which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business--both large and small--qualifies. We need to be on a war footing, " he wrote.
While welcoming "significant" moves by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Sanofi to share vaccine technology--as well as Johnson & Johnson and Merck's partnership to boost vaccine supplies--Tedros said that further actions are needed to stamp out the crisis, including waiving patents.
Framing the challenge of a global vaccination effort as immense but not insurmountable, Tedros wrote that "if we can put a rover on Mars, we can surely produce billions of vaccines and save lives on earth."
Tedros further noted that other global threats like the climate crisis require international cooperation, so "the faster we can vaccinate, the faster we will be able to focus on fighting" those issues.
"The future is ours to write," he wrote.
Tedros' comments were welcomed by Oxfam International, a member of the People's Vaccine Alliance.
"Dr. Tedros is right," the social justice group said. "It's time to end vaccine monopolies. We need a #PeoplesVaccine."
Other advocates agree:
\u201cAfter governments invested billions in COVID-19 vaccine development, the drugs will be protected by private proprietary rights. \n\nWe must make vaccines available everywhere if we are going to crush the virus anywhere. https://t.co/6w6IueAhKb #PeoplesVaccine\u201d— Global Trade Watch (@Global Trade Watch) 1614025832
The health leader's new op-ed followed growing demands from social justice and healthcare organizations that the World Trade Organization lift its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rules to allow for wider manufacturing of the vaccines.
At a Thursday protest outside the WTO headquarters in Geneva, activists with Doctors Without Borders displayed a banner reading "No Covid Monopolies--Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver."
\u201cToday at the @WTO we laid out our message to governments blocking efforts to make #COVID19 medical tools more available.\n\nJoin the call for No Patents, No Monopolies in a Pandemic.\n\n#TRIPSwaiver\n#NoCovidMonopolies\u201d— MSF Access Campaign (@MSF Access Campaign) 1614874764
In the U.S., President Joe Biden recently faced a call from hundreds of national groups to back the call for an emergency waiver of the trade organization's intellectual property (IP) rules.
As Common Dreams noted Thursday, "Despite garnering support from more than 100 countries, the waiver push has run up against opposition from powerful nations such as the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, which have thwarted the will of a supermajority of WTO member nations in order to ensure that pharmaceutical corporations retain monopoly control over coronavirus vaccine technology."
That opposition was denounced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who tweeted last month, "Denying poor countries the Covid vaccine to allow Pharma to profit from IP is cruel and morally bankrupt."
"This should be a no-brainer," wrote Khanna. "President Biden must grant the waiver so that millions around the world can develop the vaccine and save lives."
Director-General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday urged global powers to "pull out all the stops" to defeat the coronavirus pandemic including by waiving Big Pharma's vaccine patents to ensure equitable access to the drugs.
"Sharing doses, boosting manufacturing by removing barriers, and ensuring that we use data effectively to target left-behind communities is key to ending this crisis," he wrote in an op-ed published at The Guardian.
He lamented that "the vast majority" of the 225 million administered Covid-19 vaccine doses "have been in a handful of rich and vaccine-producing countries, while most low- and middle-income countries watch and wait." Such a "me-first" approach, he said, is ultimately "self-defeating."
That's because "as long as the virus is spreading anywhere, it has more opportunities to mutate and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines everywhere," wrote Tedros. "We could end up back at square one."
To prevent such a scenario, the WHO chief laid out a number of possible steps. "Whether it's dose sharing, tech transfer, or voluntary licensing, as the WHO's own Covid-19 Technology Access Pool initiative encourages, or waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested, we need to pull out all the stops," he stated.
\u201cOUT NOW: @WHO leader @DrTedros has made a powerful call for "waiving intellectual property rights, as South Africa and India have suggested."\n\nHe is right.\n\nWe need to put peoples' lives over self-defeating big pharma monopolies.\n\nWe need a #PeoplesVaccine https://t.co/022oov3UXM\u201d— The People's Vaccine (@The People's Vaccine) 1614951202
"Flexibilities in trade regulations exist for emergencies, and surely a global pandemic, which has forced many societies to shut down and caused so much harm to business--both large and small--qualifies. We need to be on a war footing, " he wrote.
While welcoming "significant" moves by pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer and Sanofi to share vaccine technology--as well as Johnson & Johnson and Merck's partnership to boost vaccine supplies--Tedros said that further actions are needed to stamp out the crisis, including waiving patents.
Framing the challenge of a global vaccination effort as immense but not insurmountable, Tedros wrote that "if we can put a rover on Mars, we can surely produce billions of vaccines and save lives on earth."
Tedros further noted that other global threats like the climate crisis require international cooperation, so "the faster we can vaccinate, the faster we will be able to focus on fighting" those issues.
"The future is ours to write," he wrote.
Tedros' comments were welcomed by Oxfam International, a member of the People's Vaccine Alliance.
"Dr. Tedros is right," the social justice group said. "It's time to end vaccine monopolies. We need a #PeoplesVaccine."
Other advocates agree:
\u201cAfter governments invested billions in COVID-19 vaccine development, the drugs will be protected by private proprietary rights. \n\nWe must make vaccines available everywhere if we are going to crush the virus anywhere. https://t.co/6w6IueAhKb #PeoplesVaccine\u201d— Global Trade Watch (@Global Trade Watch) 1614025832
The health leader's new op-ed followed growing demands from social justice and healthcare organizations that the World Trade Organization lift its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property rules to allow for wider manufacturing of the vaccines.
At a Thursday protest outside the WTO headquarters in Geneva, activists with Doctors Without Borders displayed a banner reading "No Covid Monopolies--Wealthy Countries Stop Blocking TRIPS Waiver."
\u201cToday at the @WTO we laid out our message to governments blocking efforts to make #COVID19 medical tools more available.\n\nJoin the call for No Patents, No Monopolies in a Pandemic.\n\n#TRIPSwaiver\n#NoCovidMonopolies\u201d— MSF Access Campaign (@MSF Access Campaign) 1614874764
In the U.S., President Joe Biden recently faced a call from hundreds of national groups to back the call for an emergency waiver of the trade organization's intellectual property (IP) rules.
As Common Dreams noted Thursday, "Despite garnering support from more than 100 countries, the waiver push has run up against opposition from powerful nations such as the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, which have thwarted the will of a supermajority of WTO member nations in order to ensure that pharmaceutical corporations retain monopoly control over coronavirus vaccine technology."
That opposition was denounced by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who tweeted last month, "Denying poor countries the Covid vaccine to allow Pharma to profit from IP is cruel and morally bankrupt."
"This should be a no-brainer," wrote Khanna. "President Biden must grant the waiver so that millions around the world can develop the vaccine and save lives."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.