Omicron: Why has the world still not suspended patents?

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Hi John,

The new Omicron variant of Covid-19 is causing alarm around the world – but also anger. We don’t know yet what this means for the global battle against this pandemic. But one thing we do know is that the failure to vaccinate the world is coming back to haunt us.

Yesterday Dr Ayoade Alakija of the African Union’s Vaccine Delivery Alliance was interviewed on BBC News, and she put the anger so many of us feel at this predictable failure very clearly. Can you watch and share her powerful interview now?

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Last week, we asked you to put pressure on the UK government ahead of this week’s key World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Geneva. But with the emergence of the Omicron variant, the WTO meeting - where it was hoped rich countries would bow to pressure and take proper action to end the pandemic - has now been postponed indefinitely.

The good news is that we don’t need a special conference in Geneva to pass a patent waiver. The WTO can arrange a meeting to take action at any time – and indeed it has done so many times in the past.

But we have been warning for months – along with experts from the World Health Organisation and many others – that vaccine inequality could lead to new and dangerous variants.

We don’t yet know enough about Omicron, but there are concerns that the high number of mutations mean it could spread more quickly and potentially prove more resistant to vaccines than other variants. This is a deeply worrying time for all of us. We must also remember that for 94% of people in low-income countries, whether this variant evades vaccines is academic, as they have not received even a single dose.

This moment must be a wake-up call for the British government and all other blockers. On Friday, Norway climbed down and said it will support an intellectual property waiver on vaccines. President Biden, who already supports a waiver, re-iterated the urgency of such a move. And this morning, new petitions by groups of doctors and nurses called for urgent action on the waiver.

For once, we need our politicians to respond to worsening circumstances with something more than short-term, ineffective knee-jerk reactions. Vaccine inequity and the patent waiver have rightly been high on the news agenda in recent days. As well as sharing the video above, you can also help by making sure you email the UK government to demand they change position and back the suspension of patents:

Take action

More people are waking up to the reality that structural change is needed in the pandemic response and we need to press the message home in the coming days. We must ensure this moment marks a turning point in how global leaders respond to the crisis. Please join us in piling on the pressure.

Thanks for your support,

Tim Bierley
Pharma Campaigner, Global Justice Now

Notes

1. Nick Dearden, Developing nations may give up on the WTO for good if it won’t budge on vaccine patents, Guardian, 29 November 2021
2. Fatima Hassan, Omicron: Vaccine nationalism will only perpetuate the pandemic, Al Jazeera, 28 November 2021
3. Nursing unions around world call for UN action on Covid vaccine patents, Guardian, 29 November 2021

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