Statement LIS: For the annulment of patents to guarantee vaccines against Covid-19 for all

The Covid-19 pandemic has infected more than 112 millions of people and caused the death of 2 million and a half, according to official numbers. It is estimated that the actual cases and deaths may be several times more. The pandemic made it clear that the capitalist system, even in the most advanced and richest countries in the world, was going through a crisis of unusual magnitude and that one of its manifestations was years of disinvestment and adjustment in health., from abandonment of lines of research that could have advanced knowledge about the coronavirus, to lack of personnel and hospital infrastructure in critical sectors. At the same time, The pandemic precipitated and aggravated a deep economic and social crisis that had been brewing before and is shaping up to be the most important in the history of world capitalism in all its centuries of existence., with paralysis of economies, transport, millions of workers losing their jobs, melted companies and a recovery that is far from in sight. There is a new jump in inequality and an unprecedented increase in extreme poverty on a global scale. The longer the pandemic lasts, the workers and poor of the world will suffer the most. The reason why the pandemic continues to develop strongly is that the capitalist system privileges profits over the health and lives of millions, reaching the height of hindering the mass vaccination necessary to stop the Covid-19 pandemic.

1. For months there have been more than ten vaccines in the world with great possibilities of being successful, Y 4 O 5 of them already have clinical studies that prove their effectiveness. However, the new year did not come with news of mass and expeditious vaccinations., but of new shoots, new quarantines and problems, inequalities and unforeseen delays in production, distribution and application of the vaccine.
2. First, The richest countries have monopolized an important part of the vaccines. The United States and the United Kingdom have purchased enough doses for double or triple their population, and Canada leads the ranking with enough doses to vaccinate its population five times over. According to Oxfam, “all doses of Moderna and 96 “percent of those from Pfizer/BioNTech have been acquired by rich countries”, and although Oxford/AstraZenca has committed to allocating 64 percent of its doses to countries“in development”, most of its agreements are being signed with large countries like China and India. Except for a few countries that were able to buy small quantities of the Russian Sputnik V or other, The rest of the world is waiting to distribute the pool of vaccines from the WHO COVAX program, that could take years to reach the poorest countries.
3. Beyond inequalities, all vaccine production would only reach a small proportion of the world's population over the course of 2021. According to theWall Street Journal, By the end of the year it would only be possible to vaccinate 10% of humanity. The unusual thing is that there is plenty of installed capacity to mass produce vaccines to distribute and apply them quickly.. But the pharmaceutical companies that own the patents reserve the exclusive “right” of the production and distribution of their product to ensure the greatest possible profit., although they do not have the capacity to provide the necessary vaccines in the adequate time.
4. Several of the world's richest countries are also encountering significant difficulties. In the last weeks, hand in hand with the slowness with which vaccine production is going and therefore the impossibility of mass vaccination, according to the expectations generated, has generated a very important crisis, especially in the European Union where Germany, the ruling and richest country of the same, He cannot explain to his people the slowness with which he is vaccinating, facing a Brexit England with almost the 15% of its vaccinated population. To the point that an urgent summit was called to discuss this issue where the possibility of expropriation of patents or the mandatory granting of licenses for vaccines was discussed..
5. From the International Socialist League we have always maintained that health is an inalienable right, greater than any private gain. Thus, for us medical knowledge, their progress, his therapeutic achievements, prevention or diagnostic methods, They must be the intellectual property of humanity and cannot be protected by any patent or any other mechanism that assures any sector of extraordinary profits and production exclusivity.. And we say this for all types of diseases from cancer to AIDS, from Malaria to cardiovascular diseases and now COVID. We are against the use of health and illness as a capitalist business.
6. The case of the Coronavirus pandemic, the elimination of all types of patents and profit safeguards are more than justified. First, due to the magnitude and scope of this pandemic that puts health at risk, the lives and economic subsistence of billions of people worldwide. Secondly, because it is false that companies have risked capital and invested years of research, how they allude, to ensure exclusivity. It is known by all that it was the States that provided the money in advance for its development., and the public universities that provided the knowledge.
7. The retention of vaccine patents in the midst of a global pandemic that is killing millions of people, to the point that a vaccination process that could be completed in months can stretch for years, reveals the worst side of the capitalist system. That is why we are not only in favor of the cancellation of patents, But we go further and say that all restrictions on access to medical knowledge regarding prevention must be immediately lifted. (vaccines), and treatment (sean dressings or support) forming a large worldwide collaborative database of advances, knowledge and experience to accelerate the cure of Covid-19.
8. Along with this, we demand a global productive reconversion that guarantees the production and distribution to all countries in the world of the protective elements necessary for patient care.. We maintain that the unification and nationalization under the control of workers and users of all existing health subsystems is necessary to guarantee equal care for the sick.. Only with measures of this type can we control and surely put an end to this pandemic.. There is no justification based on capital gains that can take precedence over the right to health of the world population..
9. Just as we continue our campaign for the creation of unique state public health systems, Today it is necessary to launch a global campaign for the immediate cancellation of Covid-19 vaccine patents and public production, distribution and application of vaccines around the world.

21 of ferbero 2021