COVID-19

The EU Council meets Thursday 25 to discuss the European-wide scarcity of COVID-19 vaccines that is sparking a dispute between European countries and the UK. The People’s Vaccine Alliance, supported by more than 50 organisations worldwide, is campaigning for free vaccines for all people around the world. It has spokespeople available for interview. 

Nearly two out of every five families in Yemen buy food and medicines using debt, according to Oxfam research published today. 

One month since the massive blast in Beirut, tens of thousands of vulnerable people are unable to rebuild their homes, with a single front door costing two months’ worth of a minimum-wage salary, warned Oxfam today. 

Ahead of shareholder meetings for the giant pharmaceutical corporations, the People’s Vaccine Alliance calculates that Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have paid out $26 billion in dividends and stock buybacks to their shareholders in the past 12 months.

On the eve of the Earth Day Summit, Oxfam is calling for President Biden and world leaders attending the virtual summit to urgently ramp up ambition to tackle the climate crisis.

Former UN Human Rights Commissioner and Irish President, Mary Robinson, a vocal advocate for a People’s Vaccine has joined calls of 174 former world leaders and Nobel laureates for a patent waiver at the international level. This was prompted by news that US President Biden is considering supporting a proposal at the WTO that would temporarily suspend Covid-19 vaccine patents. 

More than 170 former heads of state and government and Nobel laureates, including former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown, former President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former President of France François Hollande and Nobel Laureates Professor Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, today called on President Biden to support a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines and pursue a people’s vaccine to end the pandemic in an open letter today.

Responding to the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting today, Nadia Daar, Head of Oxfam’s Washington DC Office, said: "The G20 is not delivering on its promise to rebalance the global economy and provide major relief. It has simply extended a freeze on bilateral debt-service payments through year-end, pushing the can down the road once again. If debt cancellation is not part of the solution, the world’s poorest countries will continue to struggle to cope with the pandemic and its devastating effects. 
 

Rich countries must open the way to cheaper mass-produced COVID-19 vaccines in order to protect every person in the world and avert a $9 trillion “worst case” global economic catastrophe, said Oxfam today. They should also agree this week to inject $650 billion more into the global economy to help developing countries cope with the pandemic’s already devasting effects.