Fighting Global Vaccine Apartheid - Vijay Prashad

Published: May 21, 2021, 1:43 p.m.

b'Audio from a webinar sponsored by Workers World Party: www.workers.org/\\n\\nBuy Essential Dissent a coffee ($3): https://ko-fi.com/essentialdissent\\n\\n87% of COVID-19 vaccines have gone to the wealthiest countries, while low-income countries received just 0.2%.\\xa0This vaccine apartheid will continue to cause hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths of people across the world. A prime example of this capitalist-produced vaccine apartheid is in India, which has set world records for daily COVID infections in the past several weeks, despite the existence of billions of doses of vaccines across the world. India is one of the world\\u2019s top pharmaceutical producers, yet without key imports from the U.S., it cannot produce what is needed to vaccinate its 1.3 billion people. Meanwhile, over 220,000 people in India have died and the death rate continues to soar.\\n\\nVaccine inequality is perhaps most stark in occupied Palestine. Israel has fully vaccinated almost 60% of its population, giving it the world\\u2019s highest vaccination rate, yet the Palestinian Health Authority reported that less than 3% of Palestinians are immunized due to vaccine shortages.The Biden Administration and other imperialist countries promise to share their vaccines. The US alone controls over quarter of the world\\u2019s short-term supply of vaccines.\\xa0Yet the US and others continue a policy of vaccine nationalism, prioritizing the lives of those inside the imperialist countries over those in oppressed nations.A few pharmaceutical monopolies limit the means for making more vaccines, while taking in billions of dollars of public subsidies.\\xa0Property rights are in direct conflict with human rights to health care.\\n\\nJoin Vijay\\xa0Prashad, an Indian historian, editor and journalist who writes on vaccine nationalism and the need for a people\\u2019s vaccine as we discuss how to fight vaccine apartheid.\\xa0Vijay is the author of Red Star Over the Third World (LeftWord, 2017) and the Chief Editor of LeftWord Books. His latest book is Washington Bullets, with an introduction by Evo Morales Ayma.\\n\\nEssential Dissent Online:\\n\\nYouTube:\\u202fhttps://tinyurl.com/yxz8ehks\\na-Infos Radio Project:\\u202fhttps://tinyurl.com/y5k6t4ub\\niTunes: https://tinyurl.com/yyq9w8sy'