COVID-19 Inquiry must examine failure to tackle global vaccine inequity!

Baroness Hallett, COVID-19 Inquiry Chair

The government will soon launch an inquiry into its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We’ve lost over 150,000 people to COVID in the UK alone - but many millions of lives have been lost globally. The government’s refusal to break big pharma companies’ COVID monopolies has prolonged the pandemic and has put more lives at risk, both in the UK and around the world.

This Inquiry must look at the failure of the government to tackle vaccine inequity globally, and the repercussions of these decisions on public health. We want to know why these decisions were made, and what role pharmaceutical companies played in the government’s approach to vaccine equity.

Scroll down to sign our letter to the Chair of the Inquiry today!

Sponsored by
Pill_copy
Just Treatment

To: Baroness Hallett, COVID-19 Inquiry Chair
From: [Your Name]

We welcome you into your role as Chair of the Covid-19 Inquiry. We are writing as we feel strongly that this Inquiry should seek to answer questions regarding the UK Government’s failed approach to global vaccine equity, and the repercussions of those decisions for people both overseas and in the UK.

The failure of Governments around the world to do everything in their power to ensure equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics means that we are now living in a global vaccine apartheid. While 72% of people in rich countries are fully vaccinated with 2 doses, only 16% of people in Africa have received one vaccine dose. According to the World Health Organisation over 5.6 million people have died worldwide from the virus - though the Economist puts the true figure at over 20 million.

While the UK Government made a significant contribution to the developments of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and has contributed money to the COVAX Facility to distribute doses to the global south, these acts have evidently done little to address the systemic barriers that prevent wide-spread access to vaccines and other pandemic tools. The Government’s decisions to hoard vaccine doses, over-reliance on the COVAX Facility and decision to back pharmaceutical company’s Covid monopolies have prolonged the pandemic and led to countless more deaths.

The enormous resulting disparity in access to Covid-19 vaccines globally has provided a breeding ground for new variants which have prolonged the pandemic and wrought havoc on the NHS. Those with long term chronic health conditions have been hit with a double whammy of having to remain in isolation for longer and being less able to access NHS services they rely on.

Domestic Covid-19 vaccination is a key part of the UK Government's Covid-19 strategy. And now we've seen how global vaccine inequity impacts us in the UK as well. We feel your investigation needs to look into failings of the Government to ensure global vaccine access.

We, the undersigned, therefore ask you that the Inquiry seeks to understand:

What was the Government’s approach to vaccine equity globally and what impact has this approach had on public health?

What evidence and industry relationships impacted the Government's approach to vaccine equity? Specifically what led to the decisions to:
- Not support the temporary TRIPS waiver proposal at the World Trade Organisation
- Not support the WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool