Epidemics, Pandemics, Endemics

Tackling them must be a public service not subject to the laws of the market and capitalist profit

Alejandro Teitelbaum

The enormous speed with which the Omicron variant is spreading on a global scale brings the issue of the so-called suspension of patents back into the spotlight to make vaccines available to the inhabitants of poor countries who have received them at a rate ten to twenty times lower than the population of rich countries. Seven million people need food aid to live, i.e. 10% of the French population, and 4 million more are vulnerable because of the crisis.

This has been made possible by the policies, more or less nuanced, of the governments of the major powers and the leaders of several international organisations (European Commission and others), who have acted in concert with Big Pharma, forming a kind of illicit association or planetary mafia.

In addition, vaccine manufacturers are guaranteed that much of the agreements will not be disclosed, as well as retaining intellectual property rights over the vaccines and leeway on delivery dates and prices.

Many people and institutions have been fighting for decades for inventions and discoveries aimed at improving the quality of life, in particular the health of human beings, to be recognised as the common heritage of humanity.

But Big Capital, with its criminal activity for the exclusive benefit of large shareholders and with the complicity of the rulers of the major powers and other people and institutions that are faithful servants of the ruling system, continues to devastate the planet and cause the death of millions of people. They try to cover up their criminal behaviour by sending tiny quantities of vaccines to poor countries, including unserviceable consignments.

They must be forced to stop profiting from selling vaccines and other medicines, which must be brought into the public domain, as must the technologies for their manufacture.

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