Displaying items by tag: rich poor divide

Wealthy countries should be well-covered with vaccines by the first half of 2021, but low-income countries will still be waiting. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that vaccine access is a huge challenge for low- and middle-income countries. Even when people in high-income countries have access to adequate vaccinations, if Covid is still circulating in poorer countries we will not see an end to the pandemic. Oxfam said, ‘What we want to see AstraZeneca and Oxford do now is to commit to an open licence so more vaccine manufacturers can get on board. We think really the power is in their hands to end this epidemic by the end of 2021.’ Both MSF and Oxfam say that both price and supply challenges can be overcome if we look at more systemic issues of patents. We need to open up intellectual property, including patents, so any manufacturer around the world could produce successful products without fearing sanctions.