16 February 2021
“If you were on the Titanic and discovered a way to make lifeboats, Would you use a patent to stop others from making them ...
Just so you could monopolise production for rich people and let everyone else drown in the meantime?’’
So says ANMF (SA Branch) nurse Tanya Newell in a YouTube video released globally, urging world leaders to support a waiver on patents for COVID-19 vaccines.
The video was released by Public Services International (PSI), a global union federation of workers in public services, and features nurses from around the world calling on people to demand our leaders act now on waivers.
The PSI says some of the world's biggest corporations are using patents to monopolise profits and prevent the global scaling up of vaccine production. “This has already led to deadly delays to the vaccination programs which we are relying on to reduce pressure on us and our hospitals and finally end these lockdowns,’’ it says.
“A waiver would mean vaccines and supplies can be produced cheaply and at huge scale, making them accessible for us to deliver to our communities quickly and across the world.
But the World Trade Organisation must give the OK.
“A WTO Waiver on Covid‐19 Cures is not some radical idea.
The WHO supports it. Health worker unions support it. Medicine Sans Frontiers supports it. And so do plenty of governments including Bolivia, India, South Africa, Kenya and many more.
“But a few key nations including the USA, Canada, Japan, the EU and Australia are holding out. They're putting the interests of big pharma monopolies ahead of speeding up vaccine production to end this global crisis.
“Let’s be clear. Opposition to this waiver is making the frontline conditions we face worse. Is prolonging the lockdowns. And will lead to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
“Tell your leaders you want the interests of your nurses, your doctors, your family to come ahead of monopolised profits.
Tell them to give the WTO waiver a green light so we can get the vaccines out to you all as soon as possible.’’