"No one is safe until everyone is safe" - the case for the People's Vaccine
Channel: ReelNews
Date: 03/02/2021

The scramble for vaccines has dominated the headlines recently as the row between the EU and AstraZeneca and the UK continues to rumble on. 

This tension has emerged because Big Pharma monopolies have created a scarcity of vaccine doses. The vaccine is such a crucial health tool to help end this pandemic it should be a global public good - patent-free, produced in mass quantities by as many manufacturers as possible and affordable to all countries. 

But we are nowhere near this. Instead, Big Pharma patents and know-how mean that no other company can make or sell the vaccine, leaving the control over pricing and supplies to corporate interests who put profiteering over public health. 

This means that low income countries are being starved of vaccines while high income countries hoard them. If we allow the virus to continue to spread in large parts of the world, it will continue to mutate - which could render the vaccines useless. 

Patents on all Covid-19 treatments and vaccines should be suspended during this pandemic and we need to transform how we produce medicines to ensure that public health is prioritised over profiteering.