The People’s Alliance for Vaccinesa platform of organizations favorable to a universal access to drugs denounced that by the end of February the European Union (EU) will have thrown away almost twice as many doses of the covid vaccine as those thate will have donated by that same date to Africa.
Through a statement, the Alliance explained this Wednesday that, according to its calculations, the Member States of the Union will have gotten rid of 55 million unused doses at the end of this month, a figure that will almost double the 30 million doses that the Twenty-seven have donated to Africa so far in 2022.
Given this situation, the platform considers that “Europe has betrayed Africa”, accuses the EU of “hoarding” vaccines and blames the community club for having blocked the possibility that drugs against covid are also manufactured on African soil.
Covid management
All these complaints come the day before a summit between the European Union and the African Union begins in Brussels, which will bring together leaders of the countries of both continents on Thursday and Friday, in meetings where, among other things, they will discuss on coronavirus management.
From the Popular Alliance for Vaccines, which includes organizations such as Oxfam, Christian Aid or the United Nations agency for the fight against AIDS and HIV (UNAIDS), they ask that the EU submit to a “accountability” for its treatment of Africa during the pandemic.
And it is that, according to this platform, the countries of the Union have only allocated the 8% of all its vaccine exports against covid to Africa, because, they assert, the Twenty-seven have preferred to sell the vaccines manufactured in Europe “at exorbitant prices for rich nations.
Profits
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Specifically, the statement points to the role of Germany, a country that it accuses of having been “one of the main blockers” of the liberalization of patents, something that, according to the Alliance, would have allowed “a generic production of vaccines, tests and treatments against covid” in countries around the world.
From the Alliance they indicate that Germany has earned 3,200 million euros in tax revenue thanks to the exports of the vaccine designed by the German BioNTech Laboratoriesin collaboration with the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
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