140+ Global Leaders Support Free People’s Vaccine
Countries and pharmaceutical companies across the globe are racing to develop a vaccine that would inoculate people against the novel coronavirus, a virus that has already killed more than 300,000 worldwide. But many world leaders, especially in developing countries, worry that when a COVID-19 vaccine is ready, their people will be forced to wait at the end of a very long line, as countries with deep pockets push their way to the front, as they did in the fight for personal protective equipment (PPE).
That’s why South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, was joined by 50 former world leaders, two other African leaders, and a range of international, public figures, in calling for a “People’s Vaccine.”
The call for a People’s Vaccine was made in an open letter, signed by Ramaphosa, as well as 140 others, including the president of Senegal, the president of Ghana, Pakistan’s prime minister, and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.
“We cannot afford for monopolies, crude competition and nearsighted nationalism to stand in the way,” reads the letter.
The letter was coordinated by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Oxfam, a confederate of 19 independent charitable organizations, ahead of a virtual meeting of leaders of the World Health Assembly, set for May 18.
According to a UNAIDS press release, “Other signatories include the former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, the former President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo, the former United Nations Development Programme Administrator and former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Helen Clark.”
Liberia’s former President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said that “This is an unprecedented crisis and it requires an unprecedented response.”
“Learning the lessons from the fight against Ebola, governments must remove all the barriers to the development and rapid roll out of vaccines and treatments. No interest is more important than the universal need to save lives,” she continued.
The letter’s signatories are looking for “concrete commitments” including, “A mandatory worldwide pooling of patents and sharing of all COVID-19-related knowledge, data and technologies in order to ensure that any nation can produce or buy affordable doses of vaccines, treatments and tests.”
Moreover, the leaders want a “guarantee” that coronavirus vaccines, treatments, and tests, will be provided for free to everyone, everywhere.