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THREAD Today’s news from @pfizer @BioNTech_Group and @DHSCgovuk is an important step towards the end of the pandemic. To reach this point within a year of #COVID19 being identified is a huge victory for science. Now we need to make sure it’s a victory for humanity too
An effective #COVID19 vaccine being made available to the public for the first time is great news for people everywhere - and potentially marks the beginning of the end of the pandemic
But, this is only the first step. This pandemic won’t end with the development of effective vaccines but when we get them to people everywhere #ONEWorld
We won't properly protect people from #COVID19 anywhere until we get vaccines everywhere. The epidemiology is straightforward - to be safe in our own towns and cities we need to ensure that people across the world are also being vaccinated.
Failure to do so, will allow the virus to continue to spread and take root around the world - and then come back again and again, even in countries where we thought we had beaten it
The worst thing we can do at this moment is allow a small number of countries to monopolise access to vaccines like this. This increases the threat to the lives and livelihoods of people at home and abroad and risks extending the lifetime of a pandemic that we now know how to end
The UK Government is right to want to protect people in the UK from #COVID19. But as the virus thrives elsewhere it's not enough to just vaccinate people in the UK. @FCDOGovUK supports initiatives to accelerate global access to vaccines - scoring highly in our Vaccine Access Test
However, these commitments can be undermined if the UK seeks to buy up more than its fair share of effective vaccines, and isn’t transparent about the deals it is doing. The UK has done less well on these issues @beisgovuk. https://www.one.org/international/vaccine-access-test/
This is counter-productive. The longer the pandemic goes on, the greater the risk to people everywhere and the greater economic damage it will do around the world.
As vaccines come out, it’s in all our best interests for the government to walk the walk as well as talk the talk on global access to vaccines
Now the onus is also on @pfizer and other #bigpharma companies to ensure the whole world benefits from their success. That means doing deals with all countries, not just the richest ones and sharing knowledge so this science can be put to use everywhere as quickly as possible
Having won the race to get a vaccine into circulation @pfizer should now lead the way driving global access to vaccines and other therapeutics but while there’s no doubting their scientific achievements to date, they have lagged behind others when it comes to vaccine equity
As ONE set out last month, there are a number of ways that companies like Pfizer can make an even bigger difference in the battle against this virus https://www.one.org/international/blog/pharmaceutical-companies-vaccines-covid19/
So as we celebrate this incredible feat of science and ingenuity, we must also ensure that we take this opportunity to beat the virus everywhere. Because none of us will be truly safe until all of us are safe #ONEWorld
