OneAnnounce”New Era“For Germany last month, Olaf Scholz, the country’s new prime minister, made his bold intentions clear. “Our belief in progress is united and we believe that politics can achieve some good results.” He said, and launched his SPD-Green-FDP alliance program with the slogan “Dare to make more progress.”
This self-described “Progressive Alliance” promises a series of domestic policies for social freedom-but if it dares to join the global movement and make the Covid-19 vaccine available to everyone as a global public product, it may have the greatest impact. “Until everyone is safe, no one is safe” is more than just a nice slogan: Germany The opportunity and obligation to help it become a reality.
Schultz is proud of his leadership role in global equity in recent years. As German Finance Minister, he played a key role in reaching consensus. The world’s lowest corporate tax rate This July.
As the country’s new prime minister, he must take the second step in the interest of global equity. So far, Germany has failed to do its part to ensure that everyone in the world has access to the Covid-19 vaccine. This is essential for global public health-but it is also in Germany’s own interests.
What Germany needs is to agree to a temporary exemption from the World Trade Organization Intellectual Property RulesThese are currently stifling the global production of Covid-19 vaccines and antiviral treatments. If this obstacle is eliminated, developing countries can produce more vaccine doses. This is exactly what the world needs, as the emergence of Omicron variants proves again.
So far, the German government has been the main obstacle to agreeing to abandon patents within the WTO. While major EU countries such as France, Italy and Spain support exemptions, the German government is actively lobbying other EU member states to refuse to grant exemptions. Encouragingly, the Social Democratic Party politician and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach (Karl Lauterbach) has been appointed as the German Minister of Health, and he has clearly expressed his support for WTO exemptions. But now Schultz needs to take action.
The facts speak for themselves: Although about 56% of the 7.9 billion people worldwide have at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, this number is 7.2% in low-income countries. The vaccination rate in Africa is particularly low.
Even before the need for booster vaccines becomes apparent and children’s vaccination is approved, the world needs 11 to 15 billion doses of vaccine by the end of 2021, far exceeding current production capacity. The supply and demand gap may even widen in the coming months.
Imagine that approval was granted when the WTO exemption was first proposed a year ago: today, the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths will decrease, especially in developing countries and emerging economies. This is why the production facilities in the southern part of the world must be put into production as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will not be able to win a realistic opportunity to fight the epidemic in the short term.
The WTO’s exemptions are not just for humanitarian concerns and global equity. For Germany, as a major exporter and a world tourist country, this is also a matter of self-interest. We read daily headlines about how Covid is disrupting the supply chain. This has a direct impact on the global economy. The logic behind it is clear: the fewer people in the world are vaccinated, the greater the room for the virus to mutate into dangerous variants.
The change in the position of the German government will also send an important signal across the Atlantic. The Biden administration announced six months ago that it supported the temporary abandonment of intellectual property rights and called on other wealthy countries to do the same. As Scholz has learned from the global struggle for tax justice, cooperation with the Biden government may be a key component of progress.
The Omicron variant highlights with new urgency that as long as the disease rages, public health and the global economy will be at risk. The question for everyone is: “Am I doing everything I can to control this virus?” This is especially true for politicians who are entrusted with the welfare of the people they serve.
Unfortunately, so far, for Joe Biden and Olaf SchultzThis also applies to French President Emmanuel Macron (Emmanuel Macron), like Biden, he also expressed support for abandoning the WTO in mid-2021, but has not yet taken action on this. He should use France to hold the EU presidency in the first half of 2022 to ensure EU support for exemptions.
Only when they all agree to the WTO’s exemption will they do what is necessary. But there is still more work to be done, including incentives for technology transfer. Only in this way can vaccine production around the world be fully increased. Only in this way can we truly and effectively fight the spread of the virus.
