(We yield this space to the statement of the Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
SOME of the richest families and individuals made headlines last week in their move to procure large supplies of COVID-19 vaccines through advance market commitments (AMCs), earning them profuse praises from the National Task Force Against COVID-19.
Such moves could not be more undeserving of praise. Even when the task force mentions charitably that 50 percent to 80 percent of the procured doses will be donated, with the rest distributed to their “essential” workers at no cost, there is no solid guarantee of this which can hold them accountable should they choose otherwise. Not only that, whether “essential” or not, no worker should be deemed less worthy of crucial medicine to keep them safe.
Furthermore, AMCs are a way for companies to purchase products such as vaccines in bulk from pharmaceutical companies under the sense that they should resell them at an “affordable” price, while also incentivizing and reinforcing the exclusive rights of pharmaceutical companies to the manufacture of life-saving medicine. This is a damning profit-oriented approach to solving the pandemic.
At a time of immense humanitarian crisis brought on by the pandemic and economic fallout all over the world, profiteering from life-saving medicine, from basic right to health, should not just be avoided but actively fought. Leaving vaccines and other social services in the private sector’s mercy leaves behind the ordinary people who are no less deserving of services yet cannot afford them. That the government should allow and praise these moves against the health of the greater public as though it is charity not only reveals their active neglect of the people but also their ruthless opportunism to benefit alongside their elite, capitalist allies.
We condemn the overreliance towards the private sector of the government. The national government should instead redirect its energy towards maximizing other means such as compulsory licensing as stipulated in the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement from the Doha Declaration of the World Trade Organization in order to acquire the rights to export and distribute effective COVID-19 vaccines for at the very least a price which is affordable for the country’s poorest citizens, and at best, completely free — regardless of whether one is an “essential worker” or not.
We also call on international financial institutions to waive completely any requirements necessary for availing of compulsory licenses to export potential vaccines for developing nations such as the Philippines. It must be treated as a matter of humanitarian response, and likewise, no companies must be allowed to reap massive profits from the export of their vaccines.
Now is not the time for “vaccine nationalism” or squabbling over issues of intellectual property rights that only benefit massive multinational corporations. Vaccines — especially for a disease as prevalent as COVID-19 — must be treated as a public good in the so-called “new normal,” and not a mere profitable industry by multinational pharmaceutical corporations.
