Video Transcript: The Challenge of a Lifetime-Ensuring Universal Access to COVID-19 Health Technologies
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Title Screen shows: “COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP)-The Challenge of a Lifetime: Ensuring Universal Access to COVID-19 Health Technologies.
On screen text: On September 25th, during the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, leaders from around the world came together to call for a fair and equitable approach to the development, production, and distribution of vaccines for COVID-19.
Scenery: A male politician sits in a chair and reads aloud.
President Alvarado of Costa Rica: This is a wake up call. Global health needs to be prepared. In the context of so much pain in so many communities around the world, health, economic, and political actors across the globe are making the case for equitable cooperation and multilateralism as the only means…we can assure the reconstruction and wellbeing of our societies.
We the people…resounds louder than ever as a call to work collectively for true solutions, for joint actions which will selflessly allow us to rebuild the world where the right to health is universally safeguarded.
On screen text: 165 vaccines are currently under development, but will they be available to all?
Scenery: A male politician addresses a camera.
President Higgins of Ireland: The possibility of safe, effective and affordable diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines provides vital hope of overcoming COVID-19. But unless such medical tools are fully accessible to all on an equitable basis, the world remains at risk. Unequal responses to the pandemic will widen inequalities already exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19.
Scenery: A male politician sits in front of the World Health Organization logo and speaks.
Speaker–Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization: From the beginning, we have insisted that these tools must be available equitably to all countries. Every day counts and every part of the world needs to be covered.
Scenery: A female diplomat addresses the camera.
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS: 13% of the world’s population have already secured more than half the supplies. We’ve been here before…do I need to remind us of the 10 million lives needlessly lost to HIV and AIDS?
Scenery: A female diplomat sits in an armchair and addresses the camera.
Minister Retno Marsudi of Indonesia: We must always keep in mind that this pandemic exposes deep inequalities between countries. Developing countries remain at risk of being left behind in terms of access to medication, vaccines, and health technologies.
On screen text: What is the solution?
Scenery: A female politician sits at a table and addresses the camera.
Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO Assistant Director General for Access to Vaccines: The science is searching for solutions, but also to make solutions work for everyone we need the science to be shared.
Scenery: A female diplomat addresses the camera.
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS: We need to maximize supplies. No single company can make enough vaccines for the world. We need to allot huge manufacturing capacity for the vaccine.
Scenery: A female politician sits in a chair and addresses the camera.
Minister Fitsum Assefa Adela of Ethiopia: COVID-19 technologies, more specifically the vaccine, should be a novel, public good and not to be commercialized.
Scenery: A female politician sits in a chair and addresses the camera.
Minister Retno Marsudi of Indonesia: Of course, we cannot separate the development of health technologies from intellectual property. At the same time, the noble goal to save human lives must take precedence. Flexibility in intellectual property rules, including the TRIPS agreement, is essential to produce affordable medications and vaccines.
Scenery: A male politician sits in front of the World Health Organization logo and speaks.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization: Moving quickly means sharing data and information that may normally be kept secret or protected by intellectual property. Throwing off these constraints will accelerate the speed at which technologies are developed and avoid the duplication of research.
On screen text: Why should companies and countries participate?
Scenery: Scenery: A male politician sits in front of the World Health Organization logo and speaks.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization: In these extraordinary times, we’re asking companies to take a step back from business as usual and consider the long-term benefits of cooperation. The longer the global economy is hobbled by COVID-19, the worse it is for everybody. Ensuring equitable access to vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics is not just morally right, it’s economically smart. The time to act is now. Decisions are already being taken on product development, licensing, and allocation that will impact the global research agenda.
Scenery: A female diplomat addresses the camera.
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS: Not only for this pandemic but even for the next one, vaccine nationalism is self-defeating. Even in rich countries, lives and economies will remain at risk as long as people in the world are unprotected.
On screen text: Takeaways
Scenery: An image of a woman is shown as a voiceover plays.
Ms. Sarah Cliffe, Director of the Center on International Cooperation: I think that there were three messages that came out of this event.
One is that we have a real political challenge. Vaccine nationalism is self-defeating, but we know that it is difficult for politicians to explain how actually cooperating is going to make their own population safer.
The second is that we have a major challenge in supply–not enough is being done. We have the institutions that would be able to expand supply, if there was an agreement to share the know-how.
And third, we still have a challenge in…um…the mechanism to coordinate purchasing..of making sure that low-income countries are fully-funded to participate in that mechanism.
Scenery: A female diplomat addresses the camera.
Ms. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS: We must work together to see our economies and humanity rise up from this crisis. We sink or swim together. The time has come for a people’s vaccine.
Title Screen shows, reading “COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP)-The Challenge of a Lifetime: Ensuring Universal Access to COVID-19 Health Technologies.
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