Moderna Omicron Vaccine

Responding to the news that the UK has approved an Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna, Julia Kosgei, Policy Advisor to the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said:

“While countries like the UK buy updated vaccines for their fourth doses, people in low and middle-income countries are fighting today’s variants with yesterday’s vaccines. And they are the lucky ones. Billions of people have yet to receive a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine at all.

“Early analysis shows that high-income countries will get far more than their fair share of Omicron-specific vaccines. Once again, the richest countries are hoarding doses, while the poorest are sent to the back of the queue. Have we learnt nothing from the brutal inequality seen throughout this pandemic?

“It doesn’t have to be this way. The WHO is building mRNA vaccine production in low and middle-income countries to protect us from future pandemics. But Moderna has refused to withdraw broad patents it has filed in South Africa which could derail that work. History will not forgive or forget a company holding the world ransom like this.”

/Ends

• • June 2022 analysis of the vaccine orders made with vaccine manufactures and projected production of new generation Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines for 2022 according to Airfinity found an estimated 61 percent of Pfizer/BioNTech’s projected 409 million new Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines and 36 percent of Moderna’s projected 113 million new generation Omicron-specific mRNA vaccines will ship to high-income countries – assuming new vaccines produced this year are distributed in the same proportions as overall 2022 supply proportions – for a total of 55 percent of overall supply of new generation mRNA COVID-19 vaccines going to high-income countries in 2022: https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/g7-vaccines-failures-contribute-600000-preventable-deaths
  • Resources on the threat Moderna’s patents in South Africa pose to the mRNA hub:
    • MSF:https://msfaccess.org/removing-intellectual-property-barriers-covid-19-vaccines-and-treatments-people-south-africa
    • Nature: https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-022-01898-3/index.html?s=08
  • Excess deaths were four times higher in lower-income countries than in rich countries, according to Oxfam and PVA analysis of data from The Economist: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/media/press-releases/covid-death-toll-four-times-higher-in-poorer-countries-than-rich-countries/
  • The People’s Vaccine Alliance is a coalition of over 100 organisations and networks, supported by Nobel Laureates, health experts, economists, Heads of States, faith leaders and activists, working together for a People’s Vaccine, available free of charge to everyone, everywhere: https://peoplesmedicines.org/supporters/

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact: Joe Karp-Sawey on [email protected] or +447428985985