Dr. Kieran Harkin:

We are grateful for the opportunity to attend the committee and address the issue of equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines. We would like to explain why we believe that Ireland should formally endorse the World Health Organization's, WHO's, Covid-19 technology access pool, C-TAP, without delay. I am a GP based in Dublin. I am joined by Dr. Aisling McMahon, an assistant professor of law at Maynooth University with a special interest in patent and health law. Access to Medicines Ireland is a membership group, an organisation of relevant workers. We are honoured to be joined by Ms Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, and a leading advocate of the People's Vaccine Alliance.

To date, more than 3,600 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland, and more than 2.3 million people have died globally. The global economic cost of Covid-19 has been estimated at $3.4 trillion per year. Furthermore, Oxfam has calculated that the economic impact of the virus could push 500 million people into poverty and nearly half of all jobs in Africa could be lost, according to UN estimates. While the arrival of effective vaccines has brought an expectation that the pandemic can be brought under control, that is threatened by an inadequate supply of vaccines. Most lower income countries are not expected to be vaccinated until 2023 or later. Vaccine scarcity and slow roll-out will ensure a prolongation of the pandemic as outbreaks re-emerge due to travel between and within countries. Even more worrying is the risk that variants of the virus will emerge, which will be more infectious, more dangerous and resistant to current vaccines, as we have seen in South Africa in recent days.

Ongoing research into identifying and addressing these problems before they arise is essential. For these reasons, efficient mechanisms for scientists to collaborate and accelerate research and to achieve faster global roll-out of effective vaccines is essential. The reality is that the current vaccine scarcity is artificial and can be resolved by increasing production capacity globally. However, to do so, companies must share their know-how and intellectual property rights to expedite research and enable others to produce vaccines. Given the extent of the extraordinary health crisis and a significant public investment that has supported the creation of many Covid-19 vaccines, this is not an unreasonable expectation. As Dr. Mike Ryan of the WHO said:

We have got to get it together as a society. Social justice is only a dream if we don't put health justice at the centre ...

Rapid, equitable, global access to vaccines must be a key priority and to achieve this, we urge the Government to endorse the WHO's C-TAP. I will hand over to Dr. McMahon who will detail this model.