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TASR: A posztok elosztásáról és a koalíciós szerződés esetleges megváltoztatásáról az OĽANO és az SaS dönt – mondta a koalíciós válság kapcsán a TASR-nek Boris Kollár (Sme rodina) házelnök. Kollár hozzátette, Matovič vasárnap közölte a feltételeit. „Az SaS-en és a Za ľudín múlik, elfogadják-e" – jegyezte meg.

Several key virologists in Belgium are pleading for the country to go back into a full lockdown in order to turn the trend of rising infections and hospitalisations. According to top virologist Steven Van Gucht, the situation in Belgium shows "a dangerous cocktail". VUB professor Dirk Devroey said Belgium needs a full lockdown of four weeks, meaning "schools will be closed, workers cannot go to their work ..."

The European Commission on Monday announced the first meeting of its so-called European Contact Group on Search and Rescue for migrants and refugees. Although search-and-rescue is a national prerogative, the commission say it wants the group "to bring clarity" on ways to help. "What we need to improve is our coordination," said EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson.

Hungary gave the initial approval to two more Covid-19 vaccines from outside the EU's procurement program, officials said Monday. The medicines regulator gave emergency approval to Convidecia, a vaccine produced by China's CanSino Biologics, and to India's Covishield vaccine, a version of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine. Hungary was the first in the EU to begin using vaccines from Russia and China, and has the second-highest vaccination rate in the EU.

In a call with Russia's president Vladimir Putin, European Council president Charles Michel "expressed the view that EU-Russia ties are at a low point and confirmed the EU's approach of the five guiding principles, based on the EU's core values," the Council said in a statement, adding "there is currently disagreement in many areas." Disagreements included the situation in Ukraine, human rights, disinformation, and the jailing of Alexei Navalny.

Exports of salmon (down 98 percent), beef (92 percent), and cheese (81 percent) from the UK to the EU plunged in January compared to January 2019, due to post-Brexit red tape, Britain's Food and Drink Federation, an industry lobby group, said Monday. UK food and drink exports overall fell £750m (€873m), a 75.5-percent decline. Ireland, which used to take a fifth of UK exports, now took five percent.

The EU's border agency Frontex has blacked-out entire documents on how it spends EU taxpayer money on itself, including gala dinners and hotels. The agency, whose annual budget has soared to €544m, claims there is "no overriding public" interest.

A group of 12 member states have set out the priorities of the long-awaited Conference on the Future of Europe - but argue that reform of existing legislative processes, and institutional power balances, should be off the table.

"This is not about banning vaccine exports, this is about making sure that companies deliver on their commitments to the member states and the EU that are inscribed in contracts," commission spokesman Eric Mamer said.

A closer look at the events, however, shows that instead of a conspiracy the decision was old-fashioned bureaucratic caution. Isolated quotes by European officials were used to suit ideological agendas

The transatlantic relationship is still our best chance to defend our values and interests, and now that Trump's gone, we have a renewed chance to do so.

The hard-left is often associated with the colours red for revolution, and black for anarcho-syndicalism. But the movement is more and more green these days too.

Am 23. März ist der Welttag der Meteorologie. Passend dazu setzt sich nun auch endlich der Frühling in der Schweiz durch. Die Berge der Alpen sind jedoch gemäss einer Langzeitstudie im Winter wesentlich weniger lange weiss als noch in den Siebzigerjahren.

UK food and drink exports to the European Union dropped by 75% in January, the first month of life outside the EU’s single market, according to data published by the UK’s Food and Drink Federation.

Változékony időjárást jósol keddre a Szlovák Hidrometeorológiai Intézet (SHMÚ). Északon nagyon borús lesz az ég. Napközben helyenként havazás, vagy hózáporok várhatók – az alacsonyabban fekvő vidékeken eső is eshet. Délen csak elvétve fordulhat elő csapadék.

Die Corona-Fallzahlen steigen auf der Baleareninsel wieder an. Die Behörden haben nun reagiert.

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Mar 23 2021 (IPS)

At least 85 poor countries will not have significant access to coronavirus vaccines before 2023. Unfortunately, a year’s delay will cause an estimated 2.5 million avoidable deaths in low and lower-middle income countries. As the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General has put it, the world is at the brink of a catastrophic moral failure.

Anis Chowdhury

Vaccine apartheid
The EU, US, UK, Switzerland, Canada and their allies continue to block the developing country proposal to temporarily suspend the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to enable greatly increased, affordable supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, drugs, tests and equipment.

Meanwhile, 6.4 billion of the 12.5 billion vaccine doses the main producers plan to produce in 2021 have already been pre-ordered, mostly by these countries, with 13% of the global population.

Thirty two European and other rich countries also have options to order more, while Australia and Canada have already secured supplies enough for five times their populations. Poor countries, often charged higher prices, simply cannot compete.

Big Pharma has also refused to join the voluntary knowledge sharing and patent pooling COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative under WHO auspices. Thomas Cueni, International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) Director General, snubbed the launch, claiming he was “too busy”.

Pfizer’s CEO dismissed C-TAP as “nonsense” and “dangerous”, while the AstraZeneca CEO insisted, “IP is a fundamental part of our industry”. Such attitudes help explain some problems of alternative vaccine distribution arrangements such as COVAX. According to its own board, there is a high chance that COVAX could fail.

Suppressing vaccine access
Despite knowing that many developing countries have much idle capacity, Cueni falsely claims the waiver “would do nothing to expand access to vaccines or to boost global manufacturing capacity”, and would jeopardise innovation and vaccine research.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Big Pharma claims manufacturing vaccines via compulsory licensing or a TRIPS waiver “would undermine innovation and raise the risk of unsafe viruses”. US Big Pharma representatives wrote to President Biden earlier this month claiming likewise.

Both Salk and Sabin made their polio vaccine discoveries patent-free, while many contemporary vaccine researchers are against Big Pharma’s greedy conduct only rewarding IP holders regardless of the varied, but crucial contributions of others.

Big Pharma’s price gouging
Vaccine companies require contract prices be kept secret. In return for discounts, the EU agreed to keep prices confidential. Nonetheless, some negotiated prices were inadvertently revealed, with a UNICEF chart listing prices from various sources.

Reputedly the cheapest vaccine available, Oxford-Astra Zeneca’s is sold to EU members for around US$2 each. Although trials were done in South Africa, it still pays more than twice as much, while Uganda, even poorer, pays over four times as much!

US negotiated bulk prices, for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, are much higher, at US$15.25–19.50 per dose in several contracts, yielding 60–80% profit margins! Moderna will charge the rest of the world US$25–37 per dose.

Hypocrisy
Quite understandably, most developed countries opposing temporary TRIPS suspension have provisions in their own IP laws to suspend patent protection in the national interest and for public health emergencies.

Canada, Germany, France and others have recently strengthened their patent laws to issue compulsory licences for COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. European Council President Charles Michel announced that the EU could adopt “urgent measures” by invoking emergency provisions in its treaties.

Similarly, in the US, 28 US Code sec. 1498 (a) allows the government to make or use any invention without the patentee’s permission. To handle emergencies, the 1977 UK Patents Act (section 55) allows the government to sell a patented product, including specific drugs, medicines or medical devices, without the patentee’s consent.

When avian flu threatened early this century, the US was the only country in the world to issue compulsory licences to US manufacturers to produce Tamiflu to protect its entire population of over 300 million. The drugs were not used as the virus was not brought over either Pacific or Atlantic Oceans.

Biden must act
By helping developing countries expand vaccine manufacturing capacity and access existing capacity, US President Biden can earn much world appreciation overnight. US law and precedence enables such a unilateral initiative.

The Bayh-Dole Act allows the US government to require the owner or exclusive licensee of a patent, created with federal funding, to grant a third party a licence to an invention. Moderna received about US$2.5 billion from Operation Warp Speed, which dispensed over US$10 billion.

Moderna was founded in 2010 by university researchers with support from a venture capitalist. It has focused on mRNA technology, building on earlier work by University of Pennsylvania scientists with National Institutes for Health (NIH) funding.

The vaccine developer also used technology for previous coronavirus vaccines developed by the NIH. The NIH also provided extensive logistical support, overseeing clinical trials for tens of thousands. Moderna has already announced it will not enforce its patents during the pandemic.

Thus, POTUS has the needed leverage. The Bayh-Dole Act applies to Moderna’s vaccine, enabling the Biden administration to act independently and decisively against vaccine apartheid.

Sharing knowledge crucial
Developing countries not only need to have the right to produce vaccines, but also the requisite technical knowledge and information. Hence, the Biden administration should also support C-TAP, as recommended by Dr Anthony Fauci.

When the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) was in similar trouble, the Obama administration came forward to put US-owned patents into the pool while encouraging drug companies to help improve developing countries’ access to medicines.

President Biden knows that early US support was critical for the MPP’s eventual success. It dramatically increased production and lowered prices of medicines for HIV, tuberculosis, hepatitis C and other infectious diseases in developing countries.

 

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The post End Vaccine Apartheid Before Millions More Die appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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