There "simply is no way" to defeat Covid-19 in Ireland without "united action worldwide", an open letter to the Taoiseach from a coalition of Irish organisations and charities has said.
The group is requesting Ireland's support for proposals to allow Covid-19 vaccine technology to be shared openly through an emergency waiver at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The letter was co-ordinated by Oxfam Ireland and signed by Access to Medicine Ireland, ActionAid, Amnesty International Ireland, Comhlámh, Concern, Dóchas, Goal, the Irish Global Health Network, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO), Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Oxfam Ireland and Trócaire and references the Waiver from Certain Provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of Covid-19.
The emergency waiver, which has been put forward by South Africa and India, would temporarily waive several parts of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
If accepted, the proposal would allow countries to waive “implementation, application, and enforcement” of intellectual property rights related to the “prevention, containment, or treatment of Covid-19”.
The letter to Mr Martin states that with global supply limited, many people in low- and middle-income countries around the globe will not have vaccine access until at least 2022 according to the British Medical Journal.
“While the Economist Intelligence Unit reports that most of the world’s poorest countries will have to wait until 2024 for mass immunisation if current trends continue. We are sure you agree this is unacceptable,” it says.
“Such global inequity is not only a catastrophic moral failure that will lead to needless suffering and loss of life. Ongoing outbreaks anywhere mean greater risk of new variants developing against which vaccines are not effective and/or that can evade the antibodies developed by survivors.”
The coalition said people in developing countries need “urgent access” to vaccines and treatments to achieve herd immunity, “just as people in Ireland do”.
“Without global action, the health crisis and resulting economic crisis here and worldwide will continue,” it said.
“A new International Chamber of Commerce report concluded that the current best-case scenario of wealthy nations being fully vaccinated by the middle of 2021 and poor countries largely shut out could cause economic losses exceeding $9 trillion. Nearly half of those costs would be absorbed by wealthy countries like Ireland.”
The letter outlines how the waiver would facilitate access for governments and manufacturers worldwide to the technology needed to invest in “making Covid-19 vaccines and treatments as rapidly as possible, in as many places as possible, for the billions who still need them”.
However, the group also acknowledged it will not “completely solve the problem”, but will allow for a “temporary space” within WTO rules to empower governments to “move quicker when accessing intellectual property protected technologies that are needed to protect public health”.
“It will also enable countries to avoid lengthy and costly legal hurdles to speed up product development, scale up manufacturing and expand the supply of effective medical technologies including drugs, vaccines, diagnostics and other products, such as N95 masks, ventilator valves and personal protective equipment.”
The letter concludes by stating that Ireland has a “well-deserved reputation” of supporting the human rights of the world’s poorest people.
“With so many of the world’s poorer nations supporting this emergency waiver already, you can help maintain Ireland’s moral and public health leadership in the world by siding with the majority to prioritise saving lives. Indeed, not doing so is self-defeating, as it is clear that the sooner the world’s population is vaccinated, the sooner EU citizens are safe,” it said.
"Thus, we respectfully request that you break with the unconscionable policies the EU has supported before the next WTO General Council meeting of March 1st-2nd and announce that Ireland will no longer support opposition to the temporary, emergency Covid-19 WTO waiver of certain TRIPS provisions."
Speaking earlier this month, executive director of emergencies at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Mike Ryan said Ireland faces "a defining moment" if it chooses to vaccinate healthy young people against Covid-19 when healthcare workers and more vulnerable people in developing countries do not have access to supply.
Dr Ryan called on wealthy nations to share their vaccine supplies, noting that “almost all of the vaccines that have been delivered in the world” were currently in 10 countries.
