The Progressive International’s four-day Summit for vaccine internationalism opened on Friday, with the goal of ending “the pandemic as quickly as possible by securing COVID-19 vaccines for all”. According to a release issued by this global initiative, the summit brings together Global south governments, political leaders, healthcare workers and vaccine manufacturers from more than twenty countries and follows criticism of the G7’s plan by U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock as “not serious” and lacking “necessary urgency.”
With only 6.2% of the world population fully vaccinated against COVID, the Summit’s participants want to seek to speed up the production, distribution, and delivery of vaccines to the world. The meet hope to consider concrete proposals to pool technology, invoke patent waivers and invest in rapid production.
Representatives from the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela, the Indian State of Kerala and the Kenyan county of Kisumu will be joined by four vaccine manufacturers — Fiocruz, the Brazilian state manufacturer leading Brazil’s vaccination drive, Virchow Laboratories, an Indian manufacturer with a presence in over 100 countries and an annual turnover of $600 million, Biolyse, a Canadian firm seeking voluntary or compulsory licensing agreements and BioFarmaCuba, Cuba’s state manufacturer, noted the release.
The Summit will also be attended by political leaders from around the world, including former leader of the U.K. Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and leader of the Colombian opposition Gustavo Petro, and representatives from healthcare unions from the U.S., Brazil and India.
