G20 Health, Hope: "Rome Pact unanimously approved"
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September 06, 2021 "Since the meeting that ended today, only statements of principle and no reference to the suspension of Big Pharma's monopolies, to guarantee access to vaccines in low-income countries, where only 1.4% of the population he received a dose. So the variants will continue to spread and countless lives will be lost. "
Thus in a note Sara Albiani, policy advisor on global health of Oxfam Italia and Rossella Miccio, president of Emergency, at the conclusion of the Ministerial Health of the G20, launch an "urgent appeal in view of the G20 of government leaders at the end of October, for a real change of course ".
"In the response to the pandemic, in terms of global access to vaccines, no decisive and concrete step has been taken for the definition of medium and long-term strategies and tools, which, in the face of future pandemics, will allow us to change the paradigm and put an end to the shameful inequalities in access to treatments and vaccines ", Albiani and Miccio say, recalling how Prime Minister Mario Draghi" acknowledged on the occasion of the G20 Compact with Africa that in high-income countries almost 60% of the population received at least one dose, while in those with low income just 1.4% ".
"The inertia of governments is unacceptable - they underline - the declaration adopted today by the Ministerial Health, net of important declarations of principle, moreover acceptable, on vaccines as a global public good, does not offer concrete answers to the most dramatic and urgent challenge posed by pandemic. We now need solutions, a vaccine for everyone everywhere ". A year ago India and South Africa presented a proposal to suspend patents to the World Trade Organization; more than a year ago the World Health Organization launched the first "call to action" for sharing technology and know-how on Covid-19 vaccines. "In the meantime, the virus continues to circulate, people die and vaccines are in short supply."