Read on Twitter
This is great news. I only wish other countries could also have this headline but they don't because https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55145696
Pfizer has sold most of its vaccine stocks to rich countries, leaving countries in the global south with little or none. And its not just Pfizer - other pharmaceutical companies have been selling to the highest bidders over the past few months too. https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/news/2020/nov/11/most-pfizers-vaccine-already-promised-richest-campaigners-warn
This is not just a problem of equity but could delay the end of the pandemic and see more people lose their lives. Leaving large parts of the world without a vaccine allows the virus to spread and mutate which would make vaccines, like this one, useless. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/09/report-distributing-covid-vaccine-equitably-could-avert-hundreds-of-thousands-deaths/
This should be a #PeoplesVaccine - available and affordable to all countries. Not least because public funding from the German government has helped to make this vaccine happen while US funding developed the underlying technology this vaccine is based on https://www.citizen.org/news/analysis-pfizer-vaccine-relies-on-u-s-government-developed-spike-protein-technology/
But Pfzier/BioNTech hold the patents which prevent others from making it and keeping the knowledge of how to make their vaccine under wraps, making it difficult to replicate the process without this knowledge. Their monopoly is worth £13bn next year. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/10/pfizer-and-biontech-could-make-13bn-from-coronavirus-vaccine
We need a #PeoplesVaccine not a profit vaccine-available and affordable for all countries. Pfizer and other vaccine companies need to lift their patents and share how to make them with other manufacturers. Otherwise there just won't be enough doses for all https://act.globaljustice.org.uk/big-pharma-share-your-vaccines-world?utm_campaign=Pharma_campaign&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
And if they don't, we need governments to step in and suspend patents to help all countries get access to the Covid19 vaccines and treatments they need to tackle this crisis. No one should die because they can't get a vaccine. https://act.globaljustice.org.uk/covid-19-stop-big-pharma-monopolies?utm_campaign=Pharma_campaign&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
