The World Health Organization is currently hosting its annual summit in Geneva. Predictably COVID-19 is taking up a great deal of space. What is curious however is that the headlines coming from the summit are less about the global inequality in terms of access to the vaccines, and more about calls for a new and in-depth inquiry into the origins of the current coronavirus pandemic. Clearly it is important to understand the origins of outbreak we are currently trying to deal with, particularly from the perspective of prevention from future outbreaks. However the vast inequalities in relation to the ways different parts of the world are able to respond is not enjoying nearly enough attention.
Dr Tetros Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO has highlighted the clear inequality and danger of the current position. 10 countries are responsible for having administered 75% of all vaccines produced to date. On the other side of the spectrum many countries have not yet been able to provide vaccines to their health care workers, let along vulnerable populations within their countries.
Religious leaders are taking an active role in the People’s Vaccine initiative. Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of the Anglican Church in Southern Africa has described it as medical apartheid. Wealthy countries are stockpiling vaccines with more that 1.5 Billion doses having been purchased by them over and above the amount they actually need in their countries. This while pharmaceutical companies are claiming that production capacity is the reason for the bottle neck in vaccine deliveries.
Amongst other religious leaders Pope Francis has joined his voice to the call for Intellectual Property rights to be suspended in the current crisis to enable pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities across the world to be able to produce enough vaccines to meet current demand. The claims from current manufactures of COVID-19 vaccines that facilities in other parts of the world simply do not have the knowhow to produce good quality vaccines is simply another distraction. The WHO has already called for a skills sharing where it may be needed to ensure viable vaccines which can ease the shortage and move us forward together to a safe COVID-19 free globe.
Sweden cannot escape this reality. While we are still seeing relatively high numbers of people being infected with the coronavirus, Sweden is currently leading the EU in terms of numbers of vaccines administered per 100000 of its population. Of course it is important for any country to protect its citizens, but this cannot be to the detriment of others in the world. Archbishop Antje Jackelén, through her initiative “A World of Neighbours” seeks to highlight the interconnectedness all of us have within the world. This interfaith engagement on migration has successfully drawn together people of faith from across Europe to address the challenges faced by migrants and citizens alike. And we are fortunate indeed to also enjoy the leadership of Archbishop Emeritus Anders Wejryd not only as president of the European council of churches, but also as a Vaccine ambassador for the World Council of Churches.
Sweden has taken a leading position in contributing generously to the COVAX fund which continues to try to get vaccines to the parts of the world who are falling far behind. But funding is not enough, the bottle neck of production needs to be urgently addressed before any for of equality will be possible. Sweden needs to support the call for Intellectual Property of the vaccines to be suspended. This seems only reasonable as the vast majority of companies who hold these patents received government and donor funding for the development of the said vaccines.
It is simply immoral to be discussing the possibilities of European citizens being able to travel for vacations while other nations are fighting massive outbreaks because of lack of COVID-19 related treatment, diagnostics and vaccines. We ARE a world of neighbours, interdependent on each other in ways we do not even fully understand. The religious leaders who are part of the People’s Vaccine campaign are clear, “none of us are safe until all of us are safe”.
