The objective of administering the Covid-19 vaccine to everyone should be to save lives, not to make a profit.
The demand was made at a human chain formed by the People’s Vaccine Alliance Bangladesh on Thursday in front of the National Museum.
The People's Vaccine Alliance is a global civil society coalition working to increase the access of the general public to the Covid-19 vaccine and health care around the world.
Speakers at the human chain said that the Government of Bangladesh has taken commendable steps to prevent Covid-19 infection.
From the very beginning, Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver is being demanded from the highest levels of government in various international forums. So far, the government has undertaken a project titled ‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness’ worth about Tk 7,000 crore to purchase the vaccine.
The World Bank is providing loan assistance for this project. So far, a loan of 50 crore dollars has been approved. This amount is equal to about Tk 4,250 crore in domestic currency. The loan procedure is still in the process of taking loans from other lenders, including ADB and JICA.
They further said that the government of Bangladesh has so far bought, transported and stored vaccines worth 2 billion dollars. Already 70 percent of people have been vaccinated. The entire amount has been paid with loan. This huge amount of debt has to be repaid by the state.
As a result, budgets have to be reduced from public welfare sectors like education and health services. However, the pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh have the capacity to make this vaccine.
In this situation, the alliance made the demand to get waiver from the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) so that other countries besides the multinational companies of developed countries can produce this vaccine on their own.
