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.

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