Call for a People’s Vaccine
As part of our campaign for true global access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, we’re asking national, regional and local organisations to support this statement. Signatories will be listed on this page in due course. Sign your organisation up via our online form.
We welcome the new Covid-19 vaccines that will help save lives and end this global pandemic. But rich countries have been racing to hoard vaccines in advance and now have enough doses to vaccinate their populations almost three times over, while 9 in 10 people in the poorest countries will not get a vaccine.
We are facing a global scarcity because pharmaceutical companies hold patents on their vaccines and this means that no one else can make or supply their vaccine. They also keep the knowledge of how to make their vaccine under wraps, making it very difficult to replicate the process.
With no other company able to make the vaccine, there just won’t be enough for everyone who needs one and it is countries in the global south that will be at the back of the queue.
Inequality of access is not just unfair but will also delay the end of this pandemic. Leaving large parts of the world without a vaccine allows the virus to mutate making the effective vaccines of today, useless tomorrow.
What we’re calling for
To ensure all countries can access much needed Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, we are calling for the following:
- Pharmaceutical companies and research institutions should share their technology, know-how and intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments through the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool.
- All governments should support the proposal submitted by the governments of India and South Africa to waiver the relevant chapters of the World Trade Organisation global agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) for the prevention, containment and treatment of Covid-19.
- All governments should issue compulsory licenses1 for any patented technologies that are useful for tackling Covid-19 where patient access is restricted by intellectual property rights.
- Governments who have funded research and development should impose conditions on all public funding committed to developing Covid-19 vaccines and treatments to ensure there are no monopolies on publicly funded health products.
- The Gavi Board2 should make urgent changes to the COVAX Facility3 to push for at-cost prices, fair allocation between self-financing and funded countries, transparency and support for the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool.
We need a People’s Vaccine not a profit vaccine
Supporting organisations so far include:
Global Justice Now
Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK
Students for Global Health
African Rainbow Family
Health Poverty Action
BARAC UK
Black and Asian Lawyers 4 Justice
Frontline AIDS
Migrants Organise
Unite Scotland
Traidcraft Exchange
Trade Justice Movement
Tipping Point North South
War on Want
Nurses United UK
Jubilee Scotland
Another Europe is Possible
ASLEF
Institute of Race Relations
Share the World’s Resources
SumOfUs
Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing & Organizing (WIEGO)
Friends of the Earth Scotland
Tripod: Training for Creative Social Action
Arun & Adur Greenpeace group
XR Worthing
Justice & Peace Group, St Mary Of The Angels Catholic Church, Worthing
Worthing Climate Action Network
Bristol Defend the Asylum Seekers Campaign
Akwaaba migrant social centre, Hackney
Berkshire Greenpeace group
Hastings Supports Refugees
Hastings Community of Sanctuary
Global Justice Manchester
Science Education Futures
Families Together Digital Organising Fellowship
Oxfam Society Cambridge University
Reading and Wokingham Green Party
University Of Leicester Oxfam Society
Reading Socialist Club
Youth Stop AIDS Glasgow
Notts Youth Stop AIDS
Global Justice Ayrshire
Banbury Area Amnesty International Group
Global Justice South Lakes
Worthing Fairtrade Town Steering Group
St Andrews TTIP Action Group
Global Justice Sheffield
St Mark’s International Donations Committee
Tweedgreen, sustainability group in Peebles
Global Justice Glasgow
Oxfam Portsmouth Action Group
Global Justice Macclesfield
Global Justice Nottingham
GJN Bexhill and Hastings Group
Bexhill Fairtrade Town Steering group
Global Justice Shropshire
Sidley Baptist Church Bexhill
Bexhill in Bloom
Freedom church
Extinction Rebellion Cambridge
Cambridge Justice & Peace Group
Momentum Epping Forest
Momentum Stevenage
People’s Health Movement Kenya
Ninguna
Asociación Iglesia Metodista Costarricense
HPP-Congo
1. Governments can override patents by issuing a ‘compulsory licence’ to allow a generic manufacturer to make a branded vaccine or treatment.
2. Gavi is a public–private organisation that rolls out immunisation programmes in low income countries. During the pandemic it has been tasked with coordinating a global Covid-19 vaccine purchasing programme, known as the COVAX Facility.
3. The COVAX Facility has been set up to pool procurement of Covid19 vaccines globally but makes no demands of pharmaceutical companies to lift their patents or to charge at-cost prices.
