Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 May 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and Covid-19 Vaccines: Discussion

Photo of Paul MurphyPaul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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I am not sure that happened here. Can I move on as I have only one minute left? I have one final question. Mr. O'Connor said earlier that more vaccines are available than African countries are capable of accepting. Can he unpack that for me, in the context of the African Union for example being very clear in favour of a TRIPS waiver, of the reported gap in mRNA vaccines needed between 4 billion and 15 billion? To put it bluntly, is there not a certain racist trope going on there suggesting that African countries are not capable of using these vaccines?