Former world leaders urge jab fairness

Inequality in access to vaccine provokes calls for richer nations to remove barriers 

A group of more than 170 former world leaders and Nobel laureates have put more pressure on the United States and other developed nations to make COVID-19 vaccines more readily available worldwide by waiving intellectual property rules.

An open letter from the group, which includes former British prime minister Gordon Brown, ex-French president Francois Hollande and Muhammad Yunus, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, urges US President Joe Biden to support proposals made to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive COVID-19 vaccine patents.

A statement from the People's Vaccine Alliance, which coordinated the letter with Oxfam and 50 other organizations, said a waiver of intellectual property rules would allow for a "scale up in manufacturing in the US and around the world, overcoming artificial supply constraints".

It said almost half of all doses administered so far have been in Europe and North America, while many poorer countries have vaccinated less than 1 percent of their populations. It warned that it was likely that only 10 percent of people in the majority of poor countries will be vaccinated in the next year, at current rates.

The signatories said: "A WTO waiver is a vital and necessary step to bringing an end to this pandemic. It must be combined with ensuring vaccine knowhow and technology is shared openly."

They added: "We believe this would be an unparalleled opportunity for the US to exercise solidarity, cooperation and renewed leadership."

As new novel coronavirus variants elevated the public health risk, South Africa and India made the proposal to the WTO in October, in an effort to help ramp up production.

India told the United Nations General Assembly last month that vaccine inequity would "defeat the collective global resolve" to contain the coronavirus. It said the disparity in the accessibility of vaccines would affect the poorest nations the most.

The letter indicated Biden is considering the proposal, but so far, the president has only said the US would share any surplus of vaccines with other countries once all US citizens are vaccinated.

The US has contracts with pharmaceutical manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, and its latest figures show more than 37 percent of the population have received at least one jab, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"We will not end today's global pandemic until rich countries－most especially the US－stop blocking the ability of countries around the world to mass produce safe and effective vaccines," said Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, a Nobel laureate in medicine, quoted in an Oxfam statement accompanying the letter.

Former French leader Hollande said: "The extreme inequality in access to vaccines around the world creates an unbearable political and moral situation. It is above all sanitary and economic nonsense as we are all concerned.

"That the Biden administration is considering waiving barriers related to intellectual property rules offers hope for the international community. If the United States supports the lifting of patents, Europe will have to take its responsibilities," he said.

Former UK prime minister Brown said: "President Biden has said that no one is safe until everyone is safe, and now with the G7 ahead there is an unparalleled opportunity to provide the leadership that only the US can provide and that hastens an end to the pandemic for the world."