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Who are COVAX, Gavi and Cepi?

07/04/2021 by GJM

To judge from some press releases, the vaccine needs of the world’s poor are being met by COVAX, Gavi and Cepi, but behind swish websites who are they?

The World Health Organisation’s COVAX program “working for global equitable access” trumpets “With a fast-moving pandemic, no one is safe, unless everyone is safe”.

However it is perhaps telling that the WEF last September described it thus:

  • COVAX aims to ensure all countries have access to a safe, effective vaccine.
  • Richer countries gain access to a portfolio of potential vaccines, avoiding the risk of
    backing any one candidate.
  • Lower income countries get financial support and equal access to a vaccine once
    available. (My italics!)

Hmmmm….. Charity, not equality!

Co-led by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, the scheme is a partnership with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and UNICEF.

CEPI describes itself as another “…global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations”. It was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos four years ago and attracted funds for research from governments and trusts. Established in the wake of the Ebola epidemic where there had been competition for access to vaccine, CEPI originally demanded affordable pricing of vaccines, transparency and sharing of data from all those who had benefitted from its funds.

However, under pressure from pharmaceutical corporations (primarily Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, but with unnamed parties threatening non-cooperation), these policies were ditched in 2018 bringing protest from Médecins Sans Frontières.

Gavi, (officially “Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance”, originally the “Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization”) was established in 2000. It is co-chaired by Bill Gates, and claims to have already helped vaccinate 822m children in the world’s poorest countries against other diseases. It asserts: “…Gavi pools country demand, guarantees long-term, predictable funding and brings down prices”.

Laudable, but a decade ago it was likewise criticised by MSF for failing to push down prices and favouring new drugs rather than simpler health approaches. We thus see self-acknowledged public-private partnerships, supporting the political-economic status quo, with a high degree of effective control over access to pharmaceuticals by poor people and perhaps promoting a dependency modus operandi.

This may be unfair. It must be acknowledged that the Gates Foundation has funded the survival of many thousands of children. But it appears not to have supported a revolution or challenge to neo-colonial “pharmocracy”.

Gates’ humanitarian vision is impressive and has been communicated to millions; but it’s technological rather than political. Give this a couple of minutes and see if you agree.

I wonder what would happen were Melinda to wake up Bill one night and say: “Hey, Honey, I’ve been thinking about Microsoft’s mission statement- ‘empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more’; let’s!”

— Stephen Pennells

Learn more about vaccine availability

Filed Under: Events Tagged With: access, Big Pharma, Bill Gates, Cepi, charity, Corporate Power, COVAX, equality, equitable access, Foundation, Gates, Gavi, Global, Global Justice Manchester, Intellectual Property, IP, Johnson & Johnson, Médecins Sans Frontières, Melinda, MSF, neo-colonial, Pfizer, Pharmaceuticals, pharmocracy, PPP, PPPs, public-private partnership, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Trade, TRIPS, UNICEF, vaccine, vaccines, WEF, WHO, World Health Organisation

“A World for the many, not the few”: Kate Osamor at the Global Development Institute

08/11/2018 by GJM

Members of Global Justice Manchester and the Jubilee Debt Campaign turned out to hear Kate Osamor, shadow development secretary, speak at the University of Manchester Global Development Institute on Friday.

Kate stated that “aggressive change” is necessary since inequality is a defining feature of the world situation, and malnutrition is increasingly widespread. In addition, violence to women, unequal pay and climate change are issues that have their greatest impact on the poorest people. She pointed to an international system of tax avoidance, facilitated by local elites.

Introducing Labour’s Green Paper on international development, she called for a challenge to the fundamental economic causes of poverty, rather than the symptoms, outlining five necessary measures

KateOsamorMU

  1. The advance of feminism.
  2. A fairer global economy, including:
    1. an attack on tax avoidance;
    2. more debt relief;
    3. fairer trade;
    4. national wealth to remain in situ.
  3. A Global movement for public services and an end to PFIs.
  4. A drive for World Peace including restrictions on the international arms trade, increased help for migrants and an ethical foreign policy.
  5. Measures to mitigate climate change in recognition that it is a major driver of poverty and that we have only 12 years left in which to act including:
    1. an end to subsidies for fossil fuels;
    2. investment in renewable energy;
    3. new measures of wealth and wellbeing to replace GDP growth.

Kate spoke of alternative models of prosperity, based on the key recognition that inequality is holding back progress. It is a problem that industry is not currently rooted in local communities. We need to build worldwide progressive movements which will demand an increased say for civil society. We must also recognise that aid alone is not enough; donor countries must not take more than they give.

MembersMUOf course, this agenda faces many obstacles, some of which were raised in the questions that followed, but it came as a breath of fresh air in comparison to current government policy.

Afterwards, activists handed out ‘Drop the Debt’ and ‘Sick? Scratch Cards’ to people leaving the event.  These were well received and we had some interesting discussions,

Join the fight for affordable medicines

 

Filed Under: Actions Tagged With: alternative, Avoidance, Big Pharma, Climate Change, community, DfID, Dodging, Drop the Debt, economic, Economy, Elites, Energy, Fair Trade, Feminism, few, For the many, Fossil Fuel, GDP, Global, Global Warming, growth, Hydrocarbon, hydrocarbons, industry, Inequality, International Development, investment, Kate Osamor, many, model, National Wealth, not the few, Overseas Aid, PFI, Poverty, PPP, prosperity, Public Services, Renewable, Subsidies, success, Tax, wealth, wellbeing, World

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