The longer we delay global vaccination, the greater the harm

We must use all the tools we have to fight this pandemic and that has to include a Trips waiver, writes Alice-Mary Higgins

As Omicron sweeps through our society, imagine how it would feel if only 5.8% of the population and just 27% of frontline health workers were fully vaccinated. That is the devastating reality for many African countries, and it could have been avoided. File picture: AP /Themba Hadebe

Recently, the Seanad unanimously passed a motion which I proposed, calling on the Government to publicly support a waiver on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) for Covid-19 vaccines.

This temporary suspension of intellectual property restrictions is vital to scale up the manufacture of vaccines and reach the levels of vaccination needed to reduce deaths and get ahead of the virus.

This time last year, there was a cautious sense of hope that the vaccines developed with the support of billions in public funding would soon be available. Most of us assumed the next step would be getting those vaccines to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, since a global pandemic requires a global response.

Unfortunately, that’s not what happened. By January 2021, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) was warning that we were “on the brink of catastrophic moral failure”.

Covid-19 vaccines were not being shared equitably and countries in the global south were being pushed to the back of the queue while not being allowed to manufacture their own.

New variants

Many experts warned that leaving large parts of the world unvaccinated could contribute to the emergence of new variants. Now, as Omicron sweeps through our society, imagine how it would feel if only 5.8% of the population and just 27% of frontline health workers were fully vaccinated. That is the devastating reality for many African countries, and it could have been avoided.

It is over a year since South Africa and India first brought a proposal for a Trips waiver to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

That proposal has now been supported by over 100 countries, including the United States, which recognised that exceptional times require exceptional measures.

A Trips waiver has also been backed by the WHO, UNAids, Oxfam, Trócaire, Amnesty, international medical and legal experts and frontline health professionals, including the RCSI, and over 5m nurses worldwide.

Shamefully, the European Commission, alongside the UK and Switzerland, are the main obstacle to this life-saving measure. They have consistently blocked a Trips waiver at WTO meetings, offering a litany of excuses that do not stand up to scrutiny.

First, they claimed voluntary measures were sufficient. But wealthy countries have only delivered one-third of the doses they promised to the WHO Covax initiative and all too often this has involved unloading leftover vaccine stock near expiry. Even if every pledge was properly honoured, that would still leave the majority of the world unvaccinated.

Creation of artificial scarcity

The problem is not just distribution, it is the creation of artificial scarcity by limiting production to a small number of locations.

When the EU boasts about “exporting vaccines”, it is important to remember that countries are forced to compete for those exports because they are not being allowed to produce their own.

Claims that the global south lacks the capacity to manufacture vaccines are both patronising and inaccurate. At least 100 specific factories have already been identified as ready to go within three months if they are given access to the necessary patents and technical information.

Senator Alice-Mary Higgins: 'The Taoiseach must act by calling on the EU Commission to support a Trips waiver at the crucial WTO meeting in February.' File picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

We have also been told that waiving intellectual property could disincentivise innovation but the same arguments were made, and disproven, in relation to HIV and we know the development of the Covid-19 vaccines was driven by more than $86bn (€76bn) in public investment.

The most recent excuses involve the use of the phrase “flexibilities within the Trips agreement”, which sounds quite similar to a “Trips waiver” but actually means the opposite.

This EU ‘counter proposal’ just re-states tools which already exist and have been shown to have failed, for example, compulsory licensing, which requires each individual country to seek specific exceptions for the sometimes hundreds of patents involved in each vaccine. This has been described as entirely unworkable by both medical and legal experts.

Generic vaccines

By contrast, a Trips waiver would, by collectively lifting international IP restrictions, allow poorer countries to produce generic vaccines for vulnerable populations, while still allowing wealthier countries to retain their own national intellectual property rules and brand protections if they so wish.

Given the sacrifices which so many small businesses have made in order to protect their communities in this pandemic, it seems very reasonable to prioritise the protection of millions of lives over a potential dip in the immense profits of a few big companies.

As we face this latest wave of infections, the position of the commission looks increasingly reckless.

The longer we delay global vaccination, the greater the damage to societies, economies and public trust and the more lives are lost.

Other EU countries, such as Italy and Portugal, have come out in favour of a Trips waiver as the right thing to do, from both a moral and practical perspective. It is time for Ireland to live up to its humanitarian reputation by doing the same. The message was clear in the Seanad motion and in the strong and passionate speeches from senators, including Government senators.

Now the Taoiseach must act by calling on the EU Commission to support a Trips waiver at the crucial WTO meeting in February.

• Alice-Mary Higgins has served as an independent senator for the National University of Ireland since April 2016