ROME, January 7 (IPS) – As the rise of Omicron pervades the world, it is clear to people everywhere that the actions leaders have taken in response to the Covid crisis- 19 is still not enough to get over it.
We don’t beat Covid. Looks like Covid is beating us. What will be done?
Crucially, they are two important aspects to what is needed now that, although related, are different. The first dimension is the policies needed to get us out of the crisis. The second dimension is how those policies are applied.
In other words, the first important question is “what should leaders do?”, and the second important question is “how do we get them to do it?”
In the first question, the world is fortunate that we have no shortage of outstanding public health professionals. While there are no quick fixes, the contours of mandatory policies are no mystery, and have been mooted by the World Health Organization, leading academics, and health professionals. times for leaders and the media, many times, by the World Health Organization, by leading academics and medical professionals.
Basically, they come down to this: during a pandemic emergency, leaders need to deploy a whole range of tools that have been proven to help. The key here is whole range.
Importantly, as to how these approaches can be implemented, this requires that they be implemented for the whole world. Until they do, none of us will come out of the crisis. When Desmond Tutu said that “I am because you are, I am because of us‘, that’s not only morally correct, but it turns out, also epidemiologically true.
Necessary approaches include vaccines, treatments, and, as WHO’s Peter Singer has noted, “public health measures that encourage time spent outdoors, being physically balanced. , wear a mask, check quickly, Limit gatherings, stay home when sick“.
None of this alone is enough. However, any approach that does just either of these will fail – All of them is necessary, together.
It requires the application of whole range of policy instruments. For example, the rich countries and the Organization based in the rich countries, have emphasized the importance of dose sharing as a solution (even if they have completely failed to deliver on their promise to do so).
In contrast, developing countries, the World Health Organization and civil society have all emphasized that dose-sharing alone cannot guarantee adequate coverage for everyone, and that it is also essential To share Technology so that many producers worldwide can simultaneously produce enough to inoculate the world.
This requires quick agreement and implementation TRIPS give up proposed by South Africa and India at the WTO, and it also requires rich country governments to use their enormous leverage (as buyers, investors and regulators) on company they own. get them to share knowledge, know-how and materials. Furthermore, this Covid technology sharing requirement needs to apply to vaccines, drugs and diagnose.
As public health professors Madhukar Pai at McGill and Manu Prakash at Stanford have noted, “Science has provided many tools against Covid-19. But the fair distribution of these tools is where we are failing.
If we can find a way to equitably share the effective tools and increase their production worldwide, then we have a real chance to end this pandemic.
If we stock up on these tools, block the TRIPS abandonment, and think we can accelerate the way out of this pandemic in the Global North, we will start 2023 by playing whack-a-mole with rho, sigma, tau or omega variations. ”
The challenge then, is Not that we don’t know what leaders are supposed to do. The challenge is they do not do it. We like to believe that our leaders are led by evidence. But evidence alone is not enough.
The brilliant and essential reports of scientists will not be enough to change the world much harsher for political gain. Ask leaders to do what is necessary to get through the Covid-19 crisis – especially the fact that leaders force large pharmaceutical companies to share the rights and recipes of vaccines, treatment methods, and so on. Treatment and diagnostics so that the world can produce the billions of people it needs – will depend on pressure from ordinary people.
This is not a new lesson. We saw it in the late 1990s and early 2000s with HIV antiretroviral drugs. Then, as now, a monopoly on production prevented people in developing countries from accessing life-saving assistance.
Then, as now, the major pharmaceutical companies worked hard to stop other manufacturers from producing what could save millions of lives. Then, as now, the governments of the rich countries sided with the big pharmaceutical companies. 12 million dead. Ultimately, the great pressure of global public opinion, coupled with decisive action by developing countries, has ensured that manufacturing is unleashed and lives can be saved.
It is no coincidence that when the Covid-19 crisis broke out, the first groups to call for the sharing of medical technology, and to start organizing for it, were groups of people living with HIV. They are the center of the movement for a People’s vaccine because, from painful experience, they know what they have to lose. Health, like justice, is never given; it has only ever been won.
Some people are inspired by activism. Others, understandably, just want to get on with their lives. Activism feels like another burden. They are willing to do their part by wearing masks when available and vaccinating when recommended. But they want to give leadership to our leaders.
The problem is, that’s still not enough. Our leaders are Not leader. they are Not Do all you can to end the crisis. they are Not forcing large pharmaceutical companies to share technology to be able to produce enough. They do not guarantee access to health care. they are Not protect vulnerable people from the shock of the crisis.
The past two years can best be summed up like this: science is working, but politics is failing.
Only the bold actions of political leaders can bring an end to the Covid-19 crisis. It just passed people’s organization that we will get leaders to take that bold action. As the great novelist Alice Walker once said eloquently, “being active is the money we pay to live on this planet.”
Ben Phillips is the author of ‘How to Fight Inequality’ and an advisor to the United Nations, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs).
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