“
Never again
”: nearly 200 world personalities called on Saturday March 11 for world leaders to act to eliminate the inequalities in access to vaccines observed since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"
We are asking world leaders to commit to saying 'never again',"
the signatories, including former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the President of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize 1996 Jose Manuel Ramos-Horta.
Other Nobel laureates and former leaders from more than 40 countries, alongside UN officials joined the call, coordinated by the NGO coalition People's Vaccine Alliance,
to
mark the third anniversary of the pandemic .
With the end of the pandemic in sight, "
the world is at a crucial moment
", they write.
Vaccines belong "
to the people
", they believe, because "
governments have poured billions of taxpayers' money into research, development and advance orders
" that have allowed laboratories to "
reduce their
financial risk".
But “
instead of deploying vaccines, tests and treatments according to need, pharmaceutical companies have maximized their profits by selling doses to the richest countries first
”, they denounce.
The letter refers to a 2022 study in the scientific journal Nature, estimating that 1.3 million lives could have been saved if vaccines had been distributed equitably in 2021, which equates to "one preventable death every 24 hours
"
. .
Automatic release of patents
They also ask governments to agree on the thorny issue of the automatic lifting of patents in the event of an international public health emergency.
“
World leaders can begin to address the structural global health issues that have held back the response to Covid-19, HIV and AIDS and other diseases
,” they say.
"
Decisions made now will determine how the world prepares for and responds to future global health crises
."
The signatories call for large-scale investments to develop scientific innovation and manufacturing capacity in the Global South, to ensure that vaccines and treatments can be rapidly developed and deployed in all regions.
According to UN figures, less than a third of the population in poor countries has received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to three-quarters in rich countries.