Covid-19: “We must release patents and make vaccination a global public good”

Prime Minister Jean Castex announced Thursday evening the timetable for the gradual lifting of health restrictions, suggesting a potential way out of the crisis. Invited to Europe Matin on Friday, the national secretary of Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV), Julien Bayou, said he was worried that “we are not learning the lessons” and called for “liberating the patents”.

The need for generic vaccines

“You have to free the patents. I caught the Covid variant Omicron like many at the end of the year. And this variant emerged only a month earlier in South Africa and spread. There is no no vaccination strategy that holds in one country if we do not vaccinate the entire population. Vaccination is a common good and must become a global public good”, he said.

According to him, pharmaceutical companies have earned tens of billions of euros and “the product is amortized”. “We now need generic vaccines,” assured Julien Bayou. “If South Africa, Mexico, can’t properly vaccinate their population, then new variants will emerge. So there’s the possibility of returning this outbreak to seasonal flu status,” he continued.

“We need this vaccine and to release the patents,” insisted the national secretary of EELV. “We have been asking for it for months and months with Yannick Jadot in the European Parliament.”