Oct 16, 2021
Amid ongoing outrage over global vaccine inequity, Pope Francis on Saturday urged pharmaceutical companies to "make a gesture of humanity" by lifting intellectual property protections and sharing Covid-19 vaccine technology with the world.
The pope's remarks came during a video address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a collection of grassroots groups, in which he expressed his belief "that we are not condemned to repeat or to build a future based on exclusion and inequality."
"In the name of God," the pope said, "I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being to have access to the vaccines."
"There are countries where only three or four percent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated," he added.
Related Content
WHO Chief Warns 'Morally Repugnant' Vaccine Hoarding Is Giving Virus 'Free Rein' to Mutate
Francis' appeal, first reported by Reuters, capped off a week in which governments at the World Trade Organization's intellectual property council still failed to agree on a proposal to lift the vaccine patent protections.
The Biden administration has backed the waiver proposal, first put forth over a year ago, but the United Kingdom and some wealthy European Union nations continue to block it--opposition social justice campaigners attribute to Big Pharma lobbying.
"How many more people must die from Covid-19 before [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson gets out of the way and lets low- and middle-income countries produce their own vaccines?" Tim Bierley, pharma campaigner at the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, said in a statement Thursday.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden faced a call this week from a group of congressional Democrats to take further action to make Moderna share its recipe in light of the "huge sums of public funding from American taxpayers" the company received to develop the vaccine.
Public health advocates are also urging the U.S. to stop hoarding and wasting its vaccine stockpile and instead share its surplus doses with COVAX, the global vaccine sharing initiative.
According to the latest update from Our World in Data, 47.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Just 2.7% of people in low-income countries, however, have received at least a single dose.
Join Us: Everything is on the Line
The future of all that we cherish is on the line and we have to fight like hell to protect democracy, human decency, and a liveable planet. The last line of defense is people who understand what’s at stake—activists, writers, thinkers, doers, and everyday people who see what is happening, know in their hearts that a better world is possible, and are willing to fight for it. You are one of the good people Common Dreams was built for. We provide independent news, progressive opinion, and crucial analysis on the day’s most important issues. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. But to keep publishing and remain strong in these dangerous times, we need your support. So we’re asking you today: Will you donate to our Fall Campaign and keep the progressive, nonprofit journalism of Common Dreams alive? |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Amid ongoing outrage over global vaccine inequity, Pope Francis on Saturday urged pharmaceutical companies to "make a gesture of humanity" by lifting intellectual property protections and sharing Covid-19 vaccine technology with the world.
The pope's remarks came during a video address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a collection of grassroots groups, in which he expressed his belief "that we are not condemned to repeat or to build a future based on exclusion and inequality."
"In the name of God," the pope said, "I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being to have access to the vaccines."
"There are countries where only three or four percent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated," he added.
Related Content
WHO Chief Warns 'Morally Repugnant' Vaccine Hoarding Is Giving Virus 'Free Rein' to Mutate
Francis' appeal, first reported by Reuters, capped off a week in which governments at the World Trade Organization's intellectual property council still failed to agree on a proposal to lift the vaccine patent protections.
The Biden administration has backed the waiver proposal, first put forth over a year ago, but the United Kingdom and some wealthy European Union nations continue to block it--opposition social justice campaigners attribute to Big Pharma lobbying.
"How many more people must die from Covid-19 before [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson gets out of the way and lets low- and middle-income countries produce their own vaccines?" Tim Bierley, pharma campaigner at the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, said in a statement Thursday.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden faced a call this week from a group of congressional Democrats to take further action to make Moderna share its recipe in light of the "huge sums of public funding from American taxpayers" the company received to develop the vaccine.
Public health advocates are also urging the U.S. to stop hoarding and wasting its vaccine stockpile and instead share its surplus doses with COVAX, the global vaccine sharing initiative.
According to the latest update from Our World in Data, 47.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Just 2.7% of people in low-income countries, however, have received at least a single dose.
Amid ongoing outrage over global vaccine inequity, Pope Francis on Saturday urged pharmaceutical companies to "make a gesture of humanity" by lifting intellectual property protections and sharing Covid-19 vaccine technology with the world.
The pope's remarks came during a video address to the World Meeting of Popular Movements, a collection of grassroots groups, in which he expressed his belief "that we are not condemned to repeat or to build a future based on exclusion and inequality."
"In the name of God," the pope said, "I ask all the great pharmaceutical laboratories to release the patents. Make a gesture of humanity and allow every country, every people, every human being to have access to the vaccines."
"There are countries where only three or four percent of the inhabitants have been vaccinated," he added.
Related Content
WHO Chief Warns 'Morally Repugnant' Vaccine Hoarding Is Giving Virus 'Free Rein' to Mutate
Francis' appeal, first reported by Reuters, capped off a week in which governments at the World Trade Organization's intellectual property council still failed to agree on a proposal to lift the vaccine patent protections.
The Biden administration has backed the waiver proposal, first put forth over a year ago, but the United Kingdom and some wealthy European Union nations continue to block it--opposition social justice campaigners attribute to Big Pharma lobbying.
"How many more people must die from Covid-19 before [U.K. Prime Minister] Boris Johnson gets out of the way and lets low- and middle-income countries produce their own vaccines?" Tim Bierley, pharma campaigner at the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, said in a statement Thursday.
In the U.S., President Joe Biden faced a call this week from a group of congressional Democrats to take further action to make Moderna share its recipe in light of the "huge sums of public funding from American taxpayers" the company received to develop the vaccine.
Public health advocates are also urging the U.S. to stop hoarding and wasting its vaccine stockpile and instead share its surplus doses with COVAX, the global vaccine sharing initiative.
According to the latest update from Our World in Data, 47.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Just 2.7% of people in low-income countries, however, have received at least a single dose.
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.