“Damning Covid inquiry report shows UK government failed the world”, global justice campaigners say

Date: 18 July 2024
Campaigns: Pharma

Responding to the Covid inquiry’s first report, Tim Bierley, campaigner at Global Justice Now said:

Today’s damning report is right that the UK government failed its citizens, but it also failed the world. This was a global pandemic, and international as well as national planning was at fault. Huge numbers of deaths could have been avoided with better global cooperation, and the UK played its part in this failure.

Worse still, the UK has shown no signs of correcting these failings in the ongoing negotiations for a Pandemic Treaty, with the previous government hypocritically demanding countries share information on disease outbreaks, while blocking measures for vaccine technology and know-how to be shared across borders. Keir Starmer’s new government must urgently rebuild trust on the global stage – starting with taking a new, productive approach to negotiations on the Pandemic Treaty that puts global health outcomes ahead of narrow corporate profits.”