SA to receive enough Covid-19 shots to cover two-thirds of population by end-2021
By John Bowker
(Bloomberg) – South Africa is on track to receive enough Covid-19 vaccines to cover about two-thirds of the population by the end of the year, made up of both Pfizer Inc. and Johnson & Johnson doses.
The country has secured orders for 52.6 million shots, including 31.2 million of the single-dose J&J version, President Cyril Ramaphosa told parliament on Thursday. They are due to be delivered gradually over the rest of the year, although about half won’t arrive until after September, he said.
“The estimated times for the delivery of the vaccines depends on several factors, many of which are beyond our control,” he said.
The next steps toward a ‘People’s Vaccine’
Jayati Ghosh
May 10, 2021 23:35
Joe Biden tours a Pfizer manufacturing plant producing the COVID-19 vaccine in Kalamazoo, Michigan, U.S., Feb. 19, 2021. (Reuters)
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The Biden administration’s decision last week to stop opposing a proposed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) waiver of certain intellectual property rights under World Trade Organization rules is a welcome move. The Office of the US Trade Representative acknowledged that “the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures.” While affirming that it “believes strongly in intellectual property protections,” the Biden administration, “in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.” The US decision may already be persuading other rich country holdouts in Europe and elsewhere to follow suit.
The Tablet May 10, 2021
Rohan Aggarwal, 26, a resident doctor treating patients suffering from COVID-19, looks at a patient’s X-ray scan, inside the emergency room of Holy Family Hospital, during his 27-hour shift in New Delhi May 1, 2021. As India faces a massive surge in new infections and deaths caused by COVID-19, Pope Francis said he was praying for all those affected by the huge health emergency. (Photo: Catholic News Service)
MANHATTAN Two U.S. faith organizations on the front lines of the global coronavirus response stand with the federal government in support of waiving intellectual property (IP) protections for COVID-19 vaccines, in an effort to help the poorer countries get more doses.
Dear Fellow South African,
Twenty years ago, South Africa was the site of victory in a lawsuit that pitted public good against private profit.
At the time, we were in the grip of the HIV/Aids pandemic and sought to enforce a law allowing us to import and manufacture affordable generic antiretroviral medication to treat people with HIV and save lives.
In response, representatives of the pharmaceutical industry sued our government, arguing that such a move violated the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). This is a comprehensive multilateral agreement on intellectual property.
The case, dubbed ‘Big Pharma vs Mandela’, drew widespread international attention. The lawsuit was dropped in 2001 after massive opposition by government and civil society.