”None of us are safe until every man, woman, and child in India is safe”.
India is in the grip of a deadly second surge of Covid-19, after a shortage of vaccines has left the population exposed.
Funeral pyres are lighting up the sky, as the death toll climbs.
The tragic irony is that India is one of the biggest manufacturers of generic pharmaceutical drugs in the world. They have the capacity to produce vaccines at large scale, and prevent these horrific scenes we are witnessing.
But the capitalist Intellectual Property laws mean that they are not allowed to produce their own vaccines – the vaccines are patented which means that only the pharmaceutical companies are allowed to produce and sell them.
This is insane. We are in a global emergency. Millions of people are dying.
There has been a growing call – led by India and South Africa – for a dropping of the IPL laws in the case of Covid drugs and technology.
There have been several debates and votes on this at the World Trade Organisation, but rich blocs like the US and the EU have voted against it. This is criminal.
People Before Profit TD’s were outside the EU office this morning demanding the EU drops its opposition to the waiving of Intellectual Property laws for the Covid vaccine. Ireland – as a member state – has influence. Our government must step up and tell the EU to back the calls for a waiver of IPL.
The world cannot be held to ransom by greedy pharmaceutical companies.
We need a People’s Vaccine.