Countries in the global South should unite and seek an end to “vaccine apartheid”, a leading coalition of international civil society movements, has said. After four days of discussion, Progressive International called for “collective disobedience” to challenge the monopoly of “Big Pharma” enforced through the World Trade Organisation in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic .
“A new international health order is in formation. It is desperately needed to overcome the vaccine apartheid which threatens our very survival, calls the South’s sovereignty into question and risks further murderous mutations of this virus. A concerted effort from states, institutions, companies and peoples is needed to move from nationalism to internationalism, from competition to cooperation, from charity to solidarity,” said Varsha Gandikotla-Nellutla, Cabinet member of the organisation, in a statement.
Progressive International has called for open collaboration of COVID-19 vaccine technologies, solidarity prices for vaccines, pooling of the manufacturing capacity to ramp up vaccine and medical equipment production.
The organisation will hold more such international meets for ‘create an alternative strategy for vaccine internationalism including states, political actors and manufacturers’.
