“Allowing large numbers of people in low- and middle-income countries to remain unvaccinated is an unwise public health approach that creates conditions in which worrying new variants of the coronavirus are more likely to develop.”, they warn in the document sent to the media.
“In fact, the Omicron variant was first identified in Botswana and South Africa, on a continent where fewer than one in ten is fully vaccinated,” they stress.
The letter also points out that thanks to remarkable scientific innovations, there are “a series of vaccines that remain highly effective” against all known variants of Covid-19.
“However, unless we share this technology with the world and increase global vaccination coverage, vaccines will not be effective in stopping worrying new variants,” they warned.
They recommend using and expanding the UK’s vaccine manufacturing and distribution capacity in low- and middle-income countries.
They also urged the prime minister to support international efforts to suspend intellectual property rules that prevent low-income nations from making vaccines, tests and treatments against the virus.
The United Kingdom is, together with the European Union (EU) and Switzerland, one of the main detractors of the proposal to release patents, which has been stalled for more than a year in the World Trade Organization (OMC).
The scientists called on the British government to put public health before the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry “to avoid another year of uncertainty and tragedy.”
“The scientific evidence has been clear from the start of the pandemic that the best way to keep ourselves and our NHS (the British public health body) safe from new variants is to vaccinate the world.”, they argued.
For scientists, as laudable as vaccine donations are, “they will never be enough” to end the pandemic.
“There is untapped manufacturing capacity in the very nations that most need vaccines and treatments. For the sake of the lives of the people in those countries and our own, we must use it,” they said.
In response to the letter, a government spokesman said the UK is working to ensure developing countries can access vaccines.
Source From: Ambito
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