Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Some 10 million people living with AIDS do not have access to lifesaving treatment. Not a single monkey pox vaccine has been sent to Nigeria or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where monkey pox has been endemic for more than 50 years. There are still huge global inequities around access to Covid vaccines. The World Health Organization pandemic treaty is being drafted to address the massive inequities in the global distribution of life-saving medicines exposed by the Covid crisis. The Government played a shameful role when it bowed to the demands of the pharmaceutical industry on the issue of the TRIPS waiver during that crisis. Will the Government play the same role or will it play a more honourable one this time? Will it prioritise the needs of vulnerable people globally over the profits of the big corporations?

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