(Image source from: scientificamerican.com)

The coronavirus pandemic shattered the globe completely and lakhs of people lost their lives. Several poor countries urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to help them in procuring the vaccine for coronavirus so that their economies will return back to the track. The richer countries are pushing this back on the provisions as per the international law. Wealthy countries like the United Kingdom are blocking all the proposals to help the developing countries to increase the manufacturing capabilities of coronavirus vaccine. This is as per the documents leaked to BBC show. The richer nations like USA, UK and the European Union are pushing back the request of the small countries.

UK government spokesperson said that the global pandemic requires a global solution and UK is driving the efforts forward for equal access of coronavirus vaccines around the world. He argued that UK happens to be one of the largest donors for several countries in various fields. The pandemic highlighted the ability of different countries to source vaccinations and drugs. Several experts argued that there should be equitable access to vaccinations to prevent the cases and curb coronavirus completely. The experts said that the wealthy countries are producing the vaccinations and keeping them for their population. Poor countries are not having a vast infrastructure to produce coronavirus vaccine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has no authority to sidestep patents but it is trying hard to facilitate the vaccines for poor countries. The drug industry argues that it is not fair to share the patents as they would hinder the ability.

By Siva Kumar