New Delhi, March 11 (IANS) Global health experts from a group of 58 charities, NGOs on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, urged the US and European Union to end “patent hypocrisy” to help the world to effectively prepare for the next pandemic.
Covid was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. The pandemic has claimed over 7 million lives globally.
The WHO has been calling for a global pandemic treaty and waiving off intellectual property (IP) rights to help all countries equally prepare for the next pandemic, with vaccines and test kits, among others.
However, the rich countries, including the US and EU have been opposing measures to ease IP rights.
In an open letter coordinated by the People’s Vaccine Alliance, organisations including Oxfam, The African Alliance, Innovarte, and Public Citizen accused US President Joe Biden and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen of undermining “the safety of all humanity in the next health crisis”.
“It cannot be one rule for Americans and Europeans and another for everyone else,” they said, in the letter.
During Covid pandemic, the rich countries had blocked proposals to waive intellectual property rules on Covid vaccines, tests, and treatments. This reportedly resulted in about 1.3 million loss of lives by the end of 2021, mostly in low- and middle-income countries.
The experts called on the leaders to “support measures in the Pandemic Accord to enable lower-income countries to overcome intellectual property barriers, to make public funding of R&D conditional upon sharing pharmaceutical technology and knowhow with Global South countries, and to embed transparency in global health by publishing all government contracts with companies involved in public health”.
They also called for extending the pandemic flu mechanism. Under this, countries that share pathogen data to monitor for threats receive benefits such as fair access to medicines and financial contributions.
–IANS
rvt/dan
Disclaimer
The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by TodayIndia.news and while we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.
In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of, or in connection with, the use of this website.
Through this website you are able to link to other websites which are not under the control of TodayIndia.news We have no control over the nature, content and availability of those sites. The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.
Every effort is made to keep the website up and running smoothly. However, TodayIndia.news takes no responsibility for, and will not be liable for, the website being temporarily unavailable due to technical issues beyond our control.
For any legal details or query please visit original source link given with news or click on Go to Source.
Our translation service aims to offer the most accurate translation possible and we rarely experience any issues with news post. However, as the translation is carried out by third part tool there is a possibility for error to cause the occasional inaccuracy. We therefore require you to accept this disclaimer before confirming any translation news with us.
If you are not willing to accept this disclaimer then we recommend reading news post in its original language.
