10,000 signatures reached
To: Prime Minister Scott Morrison
Stop blocking the COVID-19 vaccine waiver at the WTO!
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We call on the Australian Government to:
1. Stop blocking vaccine access and support the waiver for manufacture and sale of effective COVID19 vaccines within the World Trade Organisation to enable broad rapid vaccine access at lower prices for Africa, Asia and Latin America.
2. Join the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – a mechanism to facilitate the sharing of know-how and intellectual property to enable any manufacturer or government to produce COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and other health technologies.
1. Stop blocking vaccine access and support the waiver for manufacture and sale of effective COVID19 vaccines within the World Trade Organisation to enable broad rapid vaccine access at lower prices for Africa, Asia and Latin America.
2. Join the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool – a mechanism to facilitate the sharing of know-how and intellectual property to enable any manufacturer or government to produce COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and other health technologies.
Why is this important?
As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, a lack of access to COVID-19 vaccines is set to further entrench global inequality and threaten millions more lives. As it currently stands more than 85 developing countries will not have widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines before 2023. Residents of wealthy and middle-income countries have received about 90 percent of the nearly 400 million vaccines delivered so far.
No one is safe unless everyone is safe.
India is currently recording over 300,000 COVID-19 cases per day. South Africa and India are proposing the World Trade Organisation waive certain provisions that give the owners of the intellectual property exclusive rights over the manufacture and sale of COVID vaccines. The waiver would only apply to COVID-19 medical products and only for the duration of the pandemic. This would allow these countries and others to make COVID-19 vaccines and make vaccines more available to poorer countries more quickly and at less cost. Their proposal is supported by 118 of 164 countries on WTO.
Australia is currently siding with the big pharmaceutical companies in protecting their exclusive patents and huge profits even in the midst of this global emergency. Big Pharma used public funding and technology to develop these vaccines but are refusing to temporarily share the patents to speed up access for all. Just three of these companies distributed $26 billion in profits to shareholders in the last year. This scandal must end. Enough is enough support the waiver!
No one is safe unless everyone is safe.
India is currently recording over 300,000 COVID-19 cases per day. South Africa and India are proposing the World Trade Organisation waive certain provisions that give the owners of the intellectual property exclusive rights over the manufacture and sale of COVID vaccines. The waiver would only apply to COVID-19 medical products and only for the duration of the pandemic. This would allow these countries and others to make COVID-19 vaccines and make vaccines more available to poorer countries more quickly and at less cost. Their proposal is supported by 118 of 164 countries on WTO.
Australia is currently siding with the big pharmaceutical companies in protecting their exclusive patents and huge profits even in the midst of this global emergency. Big Pharma used public funding and technology to develop these vaccines but are refusing to temporarily share the patents to speed up access for all. Just three of these companies distributed $26 billion in profits to shareholders in the last year. This scandal must end. Enough is enough support the waiver!