ICHG + India and Related Countries Special Interest Group of the UK Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Statement on Sharing COVID-19 Vaccines and Patent Waiver

7th May 2021

We call on the UK government to immediately share the UK’s Covid-19 vaccines where they are needed most, and support India’s request to remove Intellectual Property barriers to COVID-19 tool production

In the UK we know what a deadly COVID-19 wave looks like, and we do not wish this upon anyone. We also know that without the support of health workers from all over the world, who have risked their lives in frontline NHS roles, we would have saved many fewer lives.

We are now in an extremely fortunate position of having vaccinated the vast majority of vulnerable people in the UK. However continuing our “me-first” approach to the pandemic will extend the suffering and risk for everyone. Current inequities in vaccine access are grotesque and increasingly intolerable. While more than 60% of the UK adult population has received a COVID-19 vaccine, only 0.2% of doses have been given in low income countries. COVAX is a laudable project, but without vastly increased resources, progress will continue to be grossly inadequate.    

The scenes in India and elsewhere are heart-breaking, and it is right that the UK sends urgent medical equipment. However, it is not right that while other countries face vaccine shortages amidst rapidly increasing deaths rates, we in the UK are planning to vaccinate low risk people during a waning epidemic, before sharing them. 

Beyond donation of surplus vaccines, we must also do everything in our power to ensure that COVID-19 tools, including vaccines, reach everyone who needs them as soon as possible. To this end, we join with India and others, including the director of the WHO, the USA and more than 100 other countries, the people’s vaccine alliance, academics, charities, politicians, faith leaders and with public opinion across the G7 nations, to call upon the UK government to do everything in its power to remove barriers to technology transfer, including supporting the Indian and South African government’s request to temporarily remove patent barriers to COVID-19 tool development, in order to rapidly scale up interventions to save lives. This global crisis requires urgent global solutions. 

Organisational signatures 

International Child Health Group, special interest group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 

India and Related Countries Special Interest Group of the UK Faculty of Public Health 

Sign the petition here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/564005 

Take Action with the People’s Vaccine Alliance here: https://peoplesvaccine.org/take-action/