Sir, – When the chief executive of Oxfam states that Ireland and the EU Commission are frustrating attempts to make Covid vaccines more widely available, we need to sit up and take notice.
Jim Clarken says that more than 100 countries, including the US, are attempting to obtain a relaxation of patent regulations so that poorer countries can produce their own vaccines. It appears that the EU is a “huge blocker” of the attempt to waiver the World Trade Organisation rules.
More than 93 per cent of Irish adults are fully vaccinated, while in Africa the number of those unvaccinated stands at 93 per cent (WHO). The emergence of new vaccines confirms that vaccine inequity will greatly prolong the pandemic. Ireland is well placed to give leadership in Europe on this issue. During our own famine, starving people watched while boatloads of corn left our shores in accordance with the existing “business regulations”.
As one professional person expressed it on national radio last week: “If Ireland and the EU fail to act now, we will have become morally bankrupt and deserving of whatever happens to us!” – Yours, etc,
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EAMON FITZPATRICK,
Strandhill Road,
Sligo.