No to Patents on Vaccines!

 joint statement of communist and workers parties

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a great tragedy for more than a year now. In this period, in many countries, millions of workers have caught the disease, losing their health, their jobs or even their lives. On the other hand, in the same time frame, some companies that have sold the essential needs food, hygienic materials, masks and finally, vaccines, as commodities, have become among the wealthiest in the world. The capitalist class has turned the pandemic into an opportunity for greater exploitation of workers in order to make more profits. 

Several vaccines that have been administered since the end of 2020 are developed by pharmaceutical monopolies. There is a substantial level of information on the clinical efficacy and dose intervals of these vaccines. Despite some of them being administered cautiously due to some adverse effects, they can effectively contribute to tackling the pandemic. However, since the administration of the first shot, only around 2.16% of the world’s population could have been fully vaccinated. 

The main method of combating communicable diseases is widespread, rapid and effective immunization. Unfortunately, capitalism in the 21st century has been incapable of implementing this basic formula for a worldwide infection, as seen in the COVID-19 pandemic. The reasons for this situation are clear: Despite all vaccine development studies having been conducted thanks to public funds and the collaborative efforts of thousands of scientists, in the great capitalist powers the final product was seized by pharmaceutical monopolies under the name of intellectual property, or so-called patents. Today, vaccines can be produced only in a number of countries. While the most powerful imperialist countries are ordering much more vials beyond their needs and getting a larger share on the stocks available now and in the future, tens of countries, mainly the economically less developed, would only be able to vaccinate a small part of the population, in an uncertain future. This is turning a blnd eye on the deaths of the citizens of those countries from a preventable cause. 

The most dangerous scenario in the case of infectious diseases is the vaccination of a very limited part of the population, which would facilitate the evolution of the virus so that it would have more advanced properties. This is what is happening right now. 

The COVID-19 pandemic will not disappear from the world at once. Moreover, the social and environmental conditions created by capitalism show us that humanity will be facing such epidemics again, though in other ways. The COVID-19 pandemic will also continue until an effective treatment targeting the virus will be found and/or a massive and rapid vaccination will be achieved; and the best-case scenario is that humanity will continue to live with the coronavirus with reduced morbidity and mortality. Therefore, it is in the common interest of the working class and the popular strata to struggle for priority to be given to vaccines and treatments against infectious diseases. 

Patents or intellectual property rights have had an impact not facilitating the production of vaccines as argued, on the contrary, they slowed down the immunization of masses. 

But we cannot leave any issue concerning public health to the “good will” of profit-seeking monopolies and the competitions between them. 

Taking into account and valuing the actions of solidarity and cooperation, initiatives and efforts developed by some countries, as communist and workers' parties of the world, we are jointly calling for:

 

• The abolition of the so-called intellectual property rights, namely patents, on all COVID-19 vaccines and treatment formulations used or being developed, as well as necessary legal regulations for this in all countries.

• Production, distribution and implementation of vaccines must continue entirely by public means and the intensification of popular intervention. Public health system has to be immediately expanded and strengthened.

• We denounce speculation on vaccines. All information on vaccines and treatment formulations should be presented transparently to international scientific organizations. Research in this field should be carried out with the principle of international solidarity and cooperation, not competition

• Anti-vaccine campaigns and unscientific disinformation must be decisively addressed.

 The peoples must strengthen their struggle for the protection of health. We need to come into conflict with the interests of the monopolies, which sacrifice human lives for profit! 

 

SIGNATORIES

SolidNet Parties

1. Communist Party of Australia
2. Party of Labour of Austria (PdA)
3. Progressive Tribune-Bahrain
4. Communist Party of Bangladesh
5. Communist Party of Belgium
6. Brazilian Communist Party
7. Communist Party of Brazil - PCdoB
8. Communist Party of Britain
9. New Communist Party of Britain
10. Communist Party of Canada
11. AKEL, Cyprus
12. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
13. French Communist Party
14. German Communist Party
15. Communist Party of Greece
16. Hungarian Workers' Party
17. Communist Party of India (Marxist)
18. TUDEH - Iran
19. Communist Party of Ireland
20. Sociliast Movement of Kazakhstan
21. Socialist Party of Latvia
22. Communist Party of Luxembourg
23. Communist Party of Mexico
24. Communist Party of Norway
25. Communist Party of Pakistan
26. Palestinian Communist Party
27. Palestinian People's Party
28. Philippine Communist Party [PKP -1930]
29. Portuguese Communist Party
30. Romanian Socialist Party
31. Russian Communist Worker's Party  - CPSU
32. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
33. Communists of Serbia
34. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain (PCPE)
35. Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE)
36. Communists of Catalonia
37. Communist Party of Sri Lanka
38. Sudanese Communist Party
39. Communist Party of Swaziland
40. Communist Party of Turkey
41. Communist Party of Ukraine
42. Communist Party of Venezuela

 

Other Parties

1. Union of Communists in Bulgaria
2. Fronte Comunista (Italy)
3. Galizan People’s Union

Coming to terms with COVID-19

 by Ben Soton

Blinded by Corona: How the Pandemic Ruined Britain's Health and Wealth and What to Do about It by John Ashton, Gibson Square Publishers 2020. Paperback: 256pp; £12.99. Hardback: 256pp; £40. Kindle: 256pp. file size: 461k; £5.99.

IN THE months and years ahead there will be numerous articles, books and even television dramas about COVID-19. With this in mind, John Aston’s book will be one amongst many critiques of how the pandemic was handled and for the most part mishandled.
    Prof Ashton’s book is without doubt a mine of useful information. The author, who is one of the world’s leading experts on public health, gives accounts of previous plagues starting with the Black Death, which hit Europe in the 14th Century. Cholera came in the 19th century; Spanish Flu after the First World War, and more recently the SARS and Swine Flu pandemics of the early 21st Century.
    The book lists the Tory Government’s litany of mistakes and failure to act. These include Boris Johnson’s failure to attend COBRA meetings in the early stages of the pandemic. At the same time David Halpern, the head of the Government’s Behavioural Insights Team, was stating that self-isolation would encourage people to take unnecessary time off work.
    A chapter is devoted to the infamous concept of ‘herd immunity’ as misappropriated and advocated by Dominic Cummings and upheld by the Trump administration and the Brazilian regime, to let the plague run uncontrollably through the population to devastating effect even though, as Prof Ashton explains, the best way to achieve herd immunity is through vaccination. But the Johnson Government’s greatest blunder was ordering the first lockdown too late and then easing it before even its own criteria had been met.
    In terms of which countries to follow in view of our Government’s disastrous response, there have been numerous alternative models. The real left has looked to Democratic Korea (DPRK), which has kept the plague completely out of the country, and Cuba, People’s China and Vietnam, who all acted promptly and have seen a low death toll.
    Cuba and China even sent medical aid to European Union member states such as Italy. The EU’s response was to fine pandemic-ridden Italy for infringements of EU Competition Law. Meanwhile anti-lockdown campaigners talked-up the ‘Swedish model’ – a Nordic version of ‘herd immunity’ that eventually led to the worst death toll in Scandinavia.
    For his part John Ashton prefers the Bahrain model and the effective way in which this oil-rich island kingdom beat back COVID-19. Not sure why he calls this feudal Arab Gulf state a “constitutional monarchy” but perhaps it’s because he’s the Advisor to Bahrain’s COVID Task Force...
    Prof Ashton makes several excellent observations but views the Governments failure largely in administrative terms.
    He cites the downgrading of the position of Public Health Officer in recent years; a position largely a product of Victorian municipalism. In the same vein he also speaks highly of the ground-breaking work of Dr John Snow in dealing with the terrible cholera outbreak in 19th Century London.
    The author, ably assisted by his wife, health specialist Maggi Morris, endorses the demands of the independent SAGE committee. These include strengthening the social safety net for vulnerable groups, the establishment of a sustainable health and social care infrastructure system rooted in the community, and an integrated Health and Social Care System. Sadly, he makes little obvious reference to the ongoing privatisation of the NHS that has been taking place under successive neo-liberal governments.
    This book is an easy read and well worth reading as a useful source of information on the Government’s epic mishandling of the pandemic. It’s available from all high street bookshops and online booksellers.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

The first doses of the coronavirus vaccine have arrived from the Belgian laboratories to kick-start a mass Covid vaccination programme that has raising hopes of a return to some sort of normality by the spring of next year. The Government has secured 40 million doses of the vaccine, enough to treat 20 million people in the coming months. The PfizerBioNTech jab is likely to be speedily followed by the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine that may be approved for NHS use by Christmas.
Health Minister Matt Hancock tells us that a successful rollout would mean lockdown restrictions could end before March. He says he “can't wait” to scrap the three-tier system of coronavirus restrictions and “get back to living by mutual respect and personal responsibility, not laws set in parliament”.
    Well, we’ll wait and see. We’ve heard it all before from the Johnson government that gave us the shambolic “world-beating” track and trace system, the non-existent “oven-ready” Brexit deal with the European Union and the flawed “moon-shot” mass testing scheme that was supposed to reduce the need for social distancing.
    Johnson’s track and trace system failed because it was simply not fit for purpose. Outsourcing it to private contractors caused huge problems while its’ centralised design too often by-passed local public health teams. We cannot afford to repeat this folly with the new vaccines.
    The TUC is calling on the Government to take urgent steps to ensure the effective take up and delivery of the coronavirus vaccine. First of all local public health teams must be empowered to take the lead in co-ordination the vaccination programme. The supply chain must be improved through direct state intervention. The jabs must only be administered by trained health-care staff. National campaigns must be launched to encourage the public take up of the jab and build public confidence and trust in the anti-Covid operation.
    The TUC argues that a high level of engagement and compliance will be essential for the vaccination programme to be successful and that trust and confidence in the vaccination system is most likely to be maximised by a system designed and led by public health professionals.
    Meanwhile Richard Burgon, the secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs, says: “After an incredibly bleak year, the coronavirus vaccines offer a ray of hope that 2021 can bring a return of something resembling normality. But it will be many months before the vaccines have been distributed widely. Until then, Labour needs to step up its opposition to force the government to adopt a new strategy. We can’t go on with months more of the government’s reckless approach. That has already led to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths and one of the deepest downturns of any major economy”.
    Inoculating virtually the entire population will, in any case, take us well into next year. At the moment the only way we can drive down the rate of infection is through the lockdowns and other public health measures that we’ve lived through for the best part of this year. If we want to avoid a dreaded winter “third wave” the emergency must continue and the Government must maintain and expand the furlough and business support schemes to stave of mass unemployment.

Look to Socialism

 As the Johnson Government introduces the new three-tier system to deal with the second wave of the coronavirus plague that is sweeping throughout Scotland and across swathes of northern England, Labour is calling for a “circuit breaker” national lockdown to bring the rising rate of COVID-19 infections under control.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a short lockdown or "circuit-breaker" in England of two to three weeks to bring the rising rate of coronavirus under control. He says the current measures are not working and that a further two- to three-week sharp lock-down is needed to prevent a “sleepwalk into… a bleak winter”.

Dismissing Johnson as “an opportunist all his life”, Starmer told Parliament that the Government wasn’t doing enough to tackle the problem. What is needed is a short “circuit-break” like the draconian first lock-down that ran from late March to the beginning of August this year. This time schools and colleges would remain open, but “all pubs, bars and restaurants would 

be closed” and compensated “so that no business loses out because of the sacrifices we all need to make”.

“The government has not got a credible plan to slow infections. It has lost control of the virus and it's no longer following scientific advice,” Sir Keir said, adding that it could fix some problems by handing over track and trace responsibilities to the local authorities.

Labour’s demands are popular on the street, particularly with the older and vulnerable sections of the community who suffered the most from the first wave of the coronavirus plague this year. Starmer now needs to step up the pressure on the Johnson government to maintain the same level of support to furloughed workers and extend the coverage of the job retention scheme when it is replaced at the end of the month.

Any new scheme should mirror the original job retention scheme and reimburse employers for 80 per cent of the wages of their workers. We need an enhanced local Job Support scheme for businesses in local lockdown areas that are affected by low demand but not required to close. There should be no requirement to work a minimum number of hours. And the government should cover 60 per cent of wages for non-working time, with the employer covering 20 per cent, in line with the existing furlough scheme.

Self-employed workers also need support, and this could be done by increasing the payments rate of the self-employment income support scheme from 20 per cent to 60 per cent of taxable monthly profits, for those affected by additional local restrictions.

The only alternative to lockdowns at the moment is the fascist mis-representation of the theory of “herd immunity”, whereby they want to let the plague run its course regardless of the countless deaths of the old and infirmed that would inevitably follow. We’ve seen it happen in Brazil and Donald Trump’s America. We don’t want to see it here.

In fact, until we get a COVID-19 vaccine, lock-downs are the only way to deal with the crisis and we need to take even firmer measures to safeguard the health of the people. We only have to look at the stringent methods of the people’s democracies to see that they work. Not one case of COVID-19 has been reported in Democratic Korea, life has returned to normal in People’s China and Vietnam, Laos and Cuba have all effectively contained the coronavirus plague. This, once again, demonstrates the superiority of the socialist system.

On Yer Bike

 Remember summers of old? Those halcyon days when workers took their traditional summer break while the great and the good trooped off to loll around their villas in Tuscany or bask in the Caribbean sun?

Those days are sadly gone. We’re now in the era of coronavirus and the “staycation”. August is still the “Silly Season” but these days the papers have to fill their columns with even more rubbish now that the Wimbledon championships have been cancelled along with most of the cricket and the other competitive sports fixtures.

The traditional summer sightings of the Loch Ness monster and giant jellyfish stranded on the Devon coast may have gone but the Johnson Government is doing its best to entertain us by offering free bikes on the NHS while Sir Keir Starmer’s supporters while away the time trying to drum Jeremy Corbyn out of the Labour Party he once led.

In 1981 Norman Tebbitt, a now largely forgotten Tory Cabinet minister of the Thatcher era, told unemployed workers to follow the example of his father who “got on his bike to look for a job” during the 1930s. Now his successors are urging us to do the same thing to fight the flab.

The Government has launched a campaign to combat obesity in England by offering £50 bike repair vouchers as part of plans to boost cycling and walking. An initial 50,000 vouchers will be issued online this week. Bikes will be available on the NHS and doctor’s surgeries will be stocked with bicycles to lend, with training, access to cycling groups and peer support. In some cases, we’re told, patients will be even allowed to keep them if they use them enough.

Boris Johnson says cycling and walking have "a huge role to play" in tackling health and environmental challenges amid growing evidence of a link between obesity and an increased risk of contracting Covid-19 and Type 2 diabetes.

"But to build a healthier, more active nation, we need the right infrastructure, training and support in place to give people the confidence to travel on two wheels," Johnson says. “That's why now is the time to shift gears and press ahead with our biggest and boldest plans yet to boost active travel - so that everyone can feel the transformative benefits of cycling”.

Of course the “Fix Your Bike” scheme is just another “feel good” campaign like the Chancellor’s £10 “Eat Out to Help Out” food voucher and the hand-outs designed to keep charities and small businesses going during the current crisis.

But laudable in itself, not “everyone” can safely ride a bike – least of all the morbidly obese that the campaign is aimed at. If the Government genuinely wants to provide a safe environment for cyclists the first step would be to take public transport back into public ownership and restore the subsidies to bring down bus and train fares and reduce car usage across the country.

If the Government seriously wants to encourage “active travel” it could start by conserving the countryside that has been plundered by the property developers for decades and restoring London’s Green Belt and the open spaces of our great cities.

Finally the best “feel-good” factor would be to give the health service the resources it needs to speed the research into developing a vaccine against Covid-19 and  tackle the coronavirus plague that has brought this country and most of the world to its knees this year.

Looking for talent amidst the coronavirus crisis

Clinging to a sloping cliff in Cornwall, the Minack Theatre has a unique backdrop as an open-air theatre. Over the years a variety of acts and performances have played to audiences on the granite-carved stage that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

Built in the 1930s, the theatre has over the years become world famous and attracts thousands of visitors every year.

When the coronavirus pandemic hit and lockdown restrictions meant theatres across Britain had to close, the Minack immediately started working out a way to reopen safely and survive.

Zoe Curnow, executive director of the Minack, who has been working at the theatre for over 10 years, saw this as an opportunity to reach out to local talent and give back to the community.

“For us, we've been trying to spread the opportunity around for the local performers,” she said.

The Minack was reopened on 4^th July and last week small-scale outdoor performances were permitted by the Government, which means that solo performances to a reduced crowd can now be staged.

For the Minack, the lockdown has forced them to focus on sourcing local talent, both to reduce the risk of the transmission of COVID-19 and to keep costs down.

Ms Curnow says this has been successful so far, and it is one of the many reasons that the Minack will continue, after the lockdown, to be a top tourist destination for both domestic and international visitors.

Pre-lockdown the theatre could host around 750–800 people in the audience. Current social distancing restrictions mean around 150–200 can fit in the theatre, which means that to keep costs down the number of acts coming from outside Cornwall will have to be reduced.

They've been investing a significant amount of money, £120,000 to £150,000 pounds a year, in a taking-part education programme.

“We had over 3,000 local school children perform on stage last year through the summer. We've got performers in our academy, which are professional development academies, who are just getting to the point now when they're starting to get places at drama schools and go on into the profession, so for us it's really important here in the far west of Cornwall, to give our Cornish young people those opportunities,” she added.

She believes that theatres across the country could follow suit in adapting to life post-lockdown, utilising the unique place that theatres hold in British culture and as an opportunity to develop talent within their communities.

“Business as normal for the sector cannot come back until social distancing is a thing of the past. But we can all find creative ways to keep theatre going in different ways, and that's what we're trying to do here," Ms Curnow said.

“Focusing a lot of our work on local artists as well, because the sector of the theatre industry who have really struggled are freelance artists. Not just the performers, but the designers and the costume makers – right across the whole sector. It's a real problem, around 30 per cent of freelancers have not been able to get onto the furlough scheme."

The Minack may be unique in its setting, but Ms Curnow believes that theatres can harness their platforms and look to create more outdoor performances to help keep jobs and their theatres running.

“We were planning perspex screens, social distancing signage and hand sanitiser stands. All of those processes are now in place across the site, and we did some staff training to support the staff and enforce the message of social distancing.”

Although cautious of the future of the wider-theatre industry and those who work within it, Ms Curnow is optimistic that the Minack itself will continue to thrive as domestic tourism picks up as lockdown eases.

She hopes that the next steps of the government roadmap for the full return of theatre can be established, so that the wider-theatre industry can return and bring back the many jobs the industry provides.

Xinhua