Vaccinations alone will not rid Canada of the pandemic

By Letter to the Editor on April 24, 2021.

Editor: Back in my native country, Ethiopia, COVID-19 is wreaking absolute havoc; because Ethiopia is a low-income country that cannot afford to procure vaccines independently, millions, including people at risk, will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 for years to come.
This should concern us all because our only way to end the global pandemic, including here in Canada, is to make sure that vaccines reach everyone, everywhere.
What is appalling is that many low-and-middle-income countries, including in Africa, already do have manufacturing capacity to start producing their own vaccines and save precious lives but can only do so if intellectual property rights are waived.
Not surprisingly, pharmaceutical companies are not sharing intellectual property, know-how, and data out of pure greed.
It is immoral that Canada and other high-income countries are refusing to support the TRIPS intellectual property waiver proposed by South Africa and India to the World Trade Organization to allow scale up of vaccine production.
As we celebrate World Immunization Week on April 24-30, Canada must support the TRIPS waiver tabled at the WTO and put people’s lives ahead of publicly-subsidized pharmaceutical company profits.
Hanna Belayneh
Ottawa