Produce and decommission vaccines | Page 12

All the analyzes coincide in the health and economic severity of the moment, with 150 million infected and 3 million deaths due to Covid19 worldwide. The problem has lasted for more than a year since the declaration of the pandemic in March 2020 and the Latin American region is concentrating a regressive economic drift like no other. “Covid-19 has hit Latin America and the Caribbean like nowhere else in the world,” the IDB chief said, noting that he is witnessing the “worst decline since 1821”.[1]

Regardless of where the economic impact is considered, it is regressive and measured by the growth of poverty, unemployment, job insecurity, inequalities and a sharp concentration of income and of wealth, added to the collapse of health. Among other aspects, it discriminates against the poorest sectors, workers, mainly women and young people, as indicated by the IMF study in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.[2]. For the head of the IDB, the region’s economic growth “was the slowest in the world or the gap between the rich and the poor was one of the widest in the world”.[3] This regressive situation calls for a debate on the economic and structural problems.

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At this stage, it is a question of responding to a demand which comes from far in the “solution” of the pandemic and refers to the universal application of the vaccines in circulation today.

It is interesting to check the number of vaccines in action, to effectively minimize the severity and outcome of infections, even if the diversity implies the fragmentation of research and production capacity, and even shows the absence of international cooperation.

Ultimately, it results from the commodification of the process of production and circulation, associated with the more general phenomenon of the assumption of responsibility for health as a commodity, to the detriment of a tradition of the right to health.

For this reason, the debate raised by the “suspension” of patents, against intellectual property agreements, a strategic agenda at the World Trade Organization (WTO), is fundamental.

This patent granting initiative is promoted by more than a hundred countries and a growing demand from global social organizations, among which stands out the “Doctors Without Borders” campaign.[4], which thrives in social support.

Once vaccination is started, the dose concentration is verified among the countries with the greatest purchasing power, discriminating global populations based on the different levels of development and purchasing power of nation states.

Yet the vaccine administration rate is low and just under 15% of the world’s population have received at least one dose, let alone the two doses that complete the recommended process.

This highlights the limit of the current situation and the demand for rapid action to stop the disastrous effects of the pandemic and on the economy, which is affecting a large part of humanity.

The reality is that patents are owned and defended by large laboratories with significant gains in company balance sheets and in the valuation of invested capital.

It is a dynamic contrary to the emergency conditions of the vulnerable sectors of the world economy, according to all the analyzes of international organizations, academia or the press. This is not a surprise, because it confirms the order of things.

Structural problem

This brings us to the structural issue, which goes beyond the debate and resolution of the health and economic emergency associated with the pandemic. In this context, achieving the suspension of patents, even temporary, is a fulcrum in a strategy of structural modifications which broadens social rights, in particular those related to health.

This supposes a debate of ideas, political and cultural, of “social order”. At the same time, international cooperation for research, production and circulation of vaccines must be at the center of the intellectual concerns of contemporary society.

In short, we are referring to aspects of the situation and the structure, at a time when the human factor must prevail in the reflection of public policies.

If you think of Latin America and the Caribbean, all the considerations are aggravated, since with a population of 8% in the world, it brings together a third of infections and deaths, with the problem of countries that seemed far from the scourge. , now they add to the vulnerability.

Not only are Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Ecuador or Argentina of concern, but there are also Uruguay and Paraguay, which until recently seemed safe and beyond the pandemic.

It is from the material production of solutions that a basic answer can be drawn. Of course, there is no production possible without scientific and technical development, the result of public investment with a sufficient density of development of human potential in accordance with the times when productivity is defined from innovation and creativity.

It is not inevitable that the region is condemned to backwardness and growing inequalities. It is a historical social phenomenon that demands to be modified from human action, deliberate and conscious by another local and regional order, even with the capacity to intervene in the global sphere.

Produce and cooperate

Looking at the region, the optimism comes from Cuba and the consolidation of years of work in the health field, especially with the results of the Sovereign vaccine.

The health cooperation offered by Cuba as part of its solidarity missions could inspire regional cooperation in the production and distribution of the vaccine throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, including at the global level.

Despite the blockade, Cuba is marking the path of a sovereign way to resolve its problems under unequal conditions.

At another level of regional potential, Argentina agreed to timely cooperation in the production of the vaccine “AstraZeneca”, which had to be split in Mexico, although the process was completed in the United States.

From now on, the production agreement for “Sputnik V” in the province of Buenos Aires has been transcended, under the pretext of local and regional supply.

The two cases, Cuba and Argentina, show research and production capacity at a time when joint efforts are needed to address short- and medium-term problems, as vaccines will be needed given the continuation of the pandemic.

The absence of global cooperation shows the vulnerability of contemporary society, which is why a process of integration and collaboration between the States of Latin America and the Caribbean must be encouraged.

It is about the survival of humanity, which is played out in a population which is seriously suffering the scourge of the pandemic.

Once again, the challenge can be solved from the point of view of non-subordinate integration and from the point of view of the expansion of social rights.

[1] Latin America is suffering the worst economic decline in 200 years, notes the IDB. This content was published on April 20, 2021 – 20:50, April 20, 2021 – 20:50, in: https://www.swissinfo.ch/spa/am%C3%A9rica-prensa_latinoam%C3%A9rica-sufre- el-peor -declining-econ% C3% B3mico-en-200-a% C3% B1os – se% C3% B1ala-el-bid / 46551656

[2] IMF, at: https://blog-dialogoafondo.imf.org/?p=15489

[3] in law

[4] MSF, in: https://www.msf.org.ar/firmar/no-patentes-en-pandemia