Jayati Ghosh
Vaccine grabs, the refusal to relax patents to enable mass production, and the use of vaccines for diplomacy run the risk that poorer nations may not be protected against COVID-19 quickly enough. This will prolong the pandemic, even for the richer nations.
Despite proactive policy, the production and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines have exposed and intensified global inequality. Three features stand out: blatant vaccine grab by rich countries; protection of patent rights by governments in advanced countries, which prevents wider production of vaccines; and the use of vaccine distribution to promote both nationalism and diplomatic ‘soft power’.
This very comprehensive article about the politics surrounding access to vaccines for COVID-19 was published by TWN in Third World Resurgence April 2021. The whole article is well worth reading.
Or you can download it here