The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who will leave the Royal Family in 2020, have signed an open letter from The People’s Vaccine. Coronavirus vaccines, treatments, and tests must be “freely available to everyone, everywhere,” according to the coalition.
On Friday afternoon, the People’s Vaccine released a letter calling for Western countries to “end vaccine monopolies.”
More than 130 former world leaders, Nobel laureates, scientists, and others signed the open letter, which called for “urgent action to vaccinate low and middle-income countries and end the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The letter criticises the EU, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland for continuing “to obstruct the lifting of intellectual property rules that would allow the redistribution and scale-up of COVID-19 vaccine, test, and treatment manufacturing in the global south.”
The open letter continues by warning that “the pandemic is not over” and blaming “self-defeating nationalism, pharmaceutical monopolies, and inequality” for failing to vaccinate the world against Covid.
“The transfer of largely publicly funded vaccine technology and know-how from pharmaceutical corporations would accelerate production to a matter of months,” it continued.
“Yet, a few of these corporations still have the power to dictate vaccine supply, distribution, and price – as well as the power to decide who lives and who dies.”
The United Kingdom has pledged to donate 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses to low-income countries within the next year, as part of a G7 commitment to donate at least 1 billion doses.
Earlier on Friday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Archewell Foundation announced an investment in The People’s Vaccine.
“We are proud to welcome Archewell Foundation to the Alliance and appreciate their support, alongside Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” the People’s Vaccine said in a statement.
“We will collaborate to eliminate vaccine inequity and ensure that COVID-19 vaccines, treatments, and tests are available to all.”
They went on to say that Archewell’s contribution “will go toward the Alliance’s ongoing campaigns and efforts to secure fair vaccine access for low and middle-income countries.”
Earlier on Friday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Archewell Foundation announced an investment in The People’s Vaccine.
In October 2021, Harry and Meghan will join the World Health Organization (WHO) and Save the Children in urging G20 leaders to follow through on promises to send Covid-19 vaccines to low-income countries.
In a two-page letter, the Duke and Duchess urged the world’s wealthiest countries to accelerate long-promised donations and break pharmaceutical companies’ stranglehold on vaccine access.
