SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
An advocate of a "People's Vaccine" protests outside an AstraZeneca site in Macclesfield, United Kingdom on May 11, 2021. (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Two Years Into Pandemic, Die-Ins Will Demand End to Big Pharma's Grip on Vaccine Patents
Organizers are calling for waiving intellectual property rules, sharing vaccine recipes, and funding regional hubs to make more doses.
Mar 10, 2022
Justice campaigners across the globe plan to mark the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on Friday with die-ins and rallies to protest the intellectual property policies fueling what critics call "vaccine apartheid."
"Pharma's monopoly grip on Covid vaccines... puts us at risk for the next deadly variant."
While "billions of people worldwide still don't have access to Covid vaccines and treatments," says the protest organizers' website, "pharmaceutical companies are recording profits of over $1 million per hour and world leaders refuse to stand up to them."
In several wealthy nations, 75% or more of the population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and many people even have access to boosters, according to Our World in Data. Meanwhile, less than 14% of those in low-income countries have had one shot.
Public health advocates and experts are frustrated with rich nations for hoarding doses and failing to reach a deal at the World Trade Organization to waive IP rights for Covid-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests. Big Pharma and some wealthy countries oppose such a waiver.
"The die-ins and rallies, taking place in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, call on world leaders, including those in the U.S. and the E.U., to immediately waive intellectual property rules standing in the way of increased vaccine and treatment production; mandate the sharing of vaccine-making recipes; and help fund the creation of regional vaccine-making hubs," organizers of the #EndCOVIDMonopolies actions said in a statement.
Groups behind Friday's protests include ActionAid, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, Justice Is Global, Oxfam, People's Vaccine Alliance, Trade Justice Education Fund, and Social Security Works.
During a recent webinar organized by People's Vaccine Alliance Asia, Oxfam's regional policy and campaigns coordinator, Sunil Acharya, said that "countries such as Afghanistan lag far behind others in vaccination rates."
"Within countries," he noted, "remote regions have much lower vaccination rates and the most vulnerable among populations, most of whom lack identification documents are being left behind."
Amani Mustafa of ActionAid Palestine pointed out at the same event that "while 99.4% of the population in Israel is fully vaccinated, in Palestine, only 49% of the population is fully vaccinated."
"Israel presents itself as among the most successful in the world in terms of vaccination rates," Mustafa added of the occupying government. "However, many Palestinians in West Bank are still waiting to receive vaccination, despite Israel's obligation to provide vaccines under the Geneva Convention."
Oxfam last week released a report highlighting that on a global scale, "while effective vaccines provide hope, their rollout has tipped, from a natural desire to protect citizens, into nationalism, greed, and self-interest."
With the death toll from Covid-19 now above six million, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday reminded the world that the pandemic "will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Justice campaigners across the globe plan to mark the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on Friday with die-ins and rallies to protest the intellectual property policies fueling what critics call "vaccine apartheid."
"Pharma's monopoly grip on Covid vaccines... puts us at risk for the next deadly variant."
While "billions of people worldwide still don't have access to Covid vaccines and treatments," says the protest organizers' website, "pharmaceutical companies are recording profits of over $1 million per hour and world leaders refuse to stand up to them."
In several wealthy nations, 75% or more of the population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and many people even have access to boosters, according to Our World in Data. Meanwhile, less than 14% of those in low-income countries have had one shot.
Public health advocates and experts are frustrated with rich nations for hoarding doses and failing to reach a deal at the World Trade Organization to waive IP rights for Covid-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests. Big Pharma and some wealthy countries oppose such a waiver.
"The die-ins and rallies, taking place in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, call on world leaders, including those in the U.S. and the E.U., to immediately waive intellectual property rules standing in the way of increased vaccine and treatment production; mandate the sharing of vaccine-making recipes; and help fund the creation of regional vaccine-making hubs," organizers of the #EndCOVIDMonopolies actions said in a statement.
Groups behind Friday's protests include ActionAid, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, Justice Is Global, Oxfam, People's Vaccine Alliance, Trade Justice Education Fund, and Social Security Works.
During a recent webinar organized by People's Vaccine Alliance Asia, Oxfam's regional policy and campaigns coordinator, Sunil Acharya, said that "countries such as Afghanistan lag far behind others in vaccination rates."
"Within countries," he noted, "remote regions have much lower vaccination rates and the most vulnerable among populations, most of whom lack identification documents are being left behind."
Amani Mustafa of ActionAid Palestine pointed out at the same event that "while 99.4% of the population in Israel is fully vaccinated, in Palestine, only 49% of the population is fully vaccinated."
"Israel presents itself as among the most successful in the world in terms of vaccination rates," Mustafa added of the occupying government. "However, many Palestinians in West Bank are still waiting to receive vaccination, despite Israel's obligation to provide vaccines under the Geneva Convention."
Oxfam last week released a report highlighting that on a global scale, "while effective vaccines provide hope, their rollout has tipped, from a natural desire to protect citizens, into nationalism, greed, and self-interest."
With the death toll from Covid-19 now above six million, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday reminded the world that the pandemic "will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."
Justice campaigners across the globe plan to mark the two-year anniversary of the World Health Organization declaring the coronavirus crisis a pandemic on Friday with die-ins and rallies to protest the intellectual property policies fueling what critics call "vaccine apartheid."
"Pharma's monopoly grip on Covid vaccines... puts us at risk for the next deadly variant."
While "billions of people worldwide still don't have access to Covid vaccines and treatments," says the protest organizers' website, "pharmaceutical companies are recording profits of over $1 million per hour and world leaders refuse to stand up to them."
In several wealthy nations, 75% or more of the population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and many people even have access to boosters, according to Our World in Data. Meanwhile, less than 14% of those in low-income countries have had one shot.
Public health advocates and experts are frustrated with rich nations for hoarding doses and failing to reach a deal at the World Trade Organization to waive IP rights for Covid-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests. Big Pharma and some wealthy countries oppose such a waiver.
"The die-ins and rallies, taking place in the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, call on world leaders, including those in the U.S. and the E.U., to immediately waive intellectual property rules standing in the way of increased vaccine and treatment production; mandate the sharing of vaccine-making recipes; and help fund the creation of regional vaccine-making hubs," organizers of the #EndCOVIDMonopolies actions said in a statement.
Groups behind Friday's protests include ActionAid, Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, Justice Is Global, Oxfam, People's Vaccine Alliance, Trade Justice Education Fund, and Social Security Works.
During a recent webinar organized by People's Vaccine Alliance Asia, Oxfam's regional policy and campaigns coordinator, Sunil Acharya, said that "countries such as Afghanistan lag far behind others in vaccination rates."
"Within countries," he noted, "remote regions have much lower vaccination rates and the most vulnerable among populations, most of whom lack identification documents are being left behind."
Amani Mustafa of ActionAid Palestine pointed out at the same event that "while 99.4% of the population in Israel is fully vaccinated, in Palestine, only 49% of the population is fully vaccinated."
"Israel presents itself as among the most successful in the world in terms of vaccination rates," Mustafa added of the occupying government. "However, many Palestinians in West Bank are still waiting to receive vaccination, despite Israel's obligation to provide vaccines under the Geneva Convention."
Oxfam last week released a report highlighting that on a global scale, "while effective vaccines provide hope, their rollout has tipped, from a natural desire to protect citizens, into nationalism, greed, and self-interest."
With the death toll from Covid-19 now above six million, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday reminded the world that the pandemic "will not be over anywhere until it's over everywhere."
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.