How world sees SA: Ramaphosa asks rich countries for free Covid-19 vaccine

African leaders are concerned that their people will miss out on the scramble for a Covid-19 vaccine when it becomes available. As Philippe Duneton, acting executive director of Unitaid, a UN-backed group funding global health innovation, says, there is a huge supply-and-demand challenge. "We are facing a unique moment in history, at least for health, where everybody wants the same product at the same time," he is quoted, in the Financial Times, as saying. Working hard at trying to persuade decision-makers to manufacture and distribute a Covid-19 vaccine for the good of humankind is President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is among the signatories to a letter asking rich countries that have the resources to develop and produce a Covid-19 vaccine not to leave the rest of the world behind. – Jackie Cameron.By Thulasizwe Sithole.President Cyril Ramaphosa is leading a call, through an Open Letter, for a patent-free vaccine against Covid-19. The Financial Times reports that Ramaphosa, who chairs the African Union, is among a large group of public figures calling for the waiving of patents and for the Covid-19 vaccines to be produced at scale and made available at no cost to people everywhere..Calling a vaccine humanity's best hope of "putting a stop to this painful global pandemic", Ramaphosa called for a "people's vaccine" that would act as a global public good, says the London-based FT..Signatories of the letter, including Macky Sall, President of Senegal, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, president of Ghana, and Imran Khan, Pakistan's prime minister, expressed fears that developing countries might not have quick or affordable access to a vaccine that is expected to be discovered and manufactured in the global north, notes the influential global newspaper..___STEADY_PAYWALL___."We cannot afford for monopolies, crude competition and nearsighted nationalism to stand in the way," said the letter..The FT points out that the campaign for a free vaccine has been organised by UNAids and Oxfam and carries the signatures of dozens of former leaders, including Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Gordon Brown of the UK and Helen Clark of New Zealand, as well as economists such as Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz.."The letter comes after a number of vaccine producers pledged at-cost manufacture and called for billions of dollars in upfront funding from governments to help them swiftly invest in large-scale production even while they are clarifying safety and efficacy.".Activists, say the FT's journalists, have expressed concern that civil society groups have had little voice in discussions over funding and that richer countries will dominate in a scramble for access to limited supplies..Ebba Kalondo, spokeswoman for the AU, is quoted as saying that African efforts to pool resources to buy diagnostic kits, reagents and personal protective equipment had been stymied by richer countries. ."That has raised genuine fears that when a vaccine is developed, it might not be available to people in poorer parts of the world, she said.."Even when we are paying market rates, we are not getting the goods because they are being taken by richer countries," Kalondo added. .Ha-Joon Chang, a Cambridge economist who also signed the letter, tells the FT that there was well-established precedent in the World Trade Organisation's Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement that allowed for overriding intellectual property in times of a public health emergency. .These include during the Aids epidemic in the early 2000s as well as in 2001 when, after a spate of anthrax attacks in the US, Washington threatened to override patents held by Bayer, the German pharmaceuticals company, if it could not match generic prices for its anti-anthrax drug.."The vaccine does not work unless a huge majority of people have access to it. It's not like other drugs where rich people can pay and save themselves while other people are left to take care of themselves," Chang is quoted as saying..The FT points out that, in the letter, Ramaphosa praised international efforts, including a pledge this month by 40 countries for $8bn in funding to help develop a vaccine, diagnostics and treatment. But "this massive and moral task", he warned "could not be left to market forces"..Instead, Ramaphosa said, "the WHO should press for mandatory sharing of all Covid-19-related technology as well as the scale-up of manufacturing so that any vaccine could be made available worldwide, regardless of ability to pay".."Access needs to be prioritised first for frontline workers, the most vulnerable people and for poor countries with the least capacity to save lives," he is quoted as saying.

How world sees SA: Ramaphosa asks rich countries for free Covid-19 vaccine

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