Who is popular today?

A new report from the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs committee has warned that if pharmaceutical companies don’t begin to share their vaccine knowledge and data, the pandemic will be prolonged and developing nations will be worst affected.
The report also stated that there are six pharmaceutical plants in Ireland capable of producing Covid-19 vaccines, if they were given the knowledge and instructions to do so.
The Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence launched their report on the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines to developing countries on Thursday, urging the Government to ensure a global equitable supply.
The report said the Irish Government should formally endorse the WHO’s Covid-Technology Access Pool (C-Tap) initiative.
This would see private companies sharing vaccine-related intellectual property rights, technology and know-how.
This would allow different companies in other countries to produce their own vaccines, therefore increasing vaccine manufacturing capacity globally.
Currently, companies join C-Tap voluntarily and are not obliged to join the initiative.
The report comes after Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO executive director of emergencies, said Ireland and other wealthy nations should not be vaccinating young, healthy people before healthcare workers and more vulnerable people in developing nations.
Mandatory measures
However, the report said that if companies don’t offer sufficient voluntary support, mandatory measures such as suspending intellectual property rights under a World Trade Organisation waiver proposal will be needed, and the Irish government should support this.
The report also said that Covax, an advance purchase scheme organized by the WHO which allows developing nations to buy vaccines for a low price, is under threat.
The report warned that there are not enough vaccines available for Covax to work, and companies need to start sharing their data to increase supply.
“Competition among the most developed countries runs the risk that the virus will be left to ravage developing countries,” the report stated. “This also entails the risk of further strains emerging and threatens the efficacy of vaccines.”
The report also said that research by Knowledge Ecology International shows there could be more than 100 plants globally which are capable of producing Covid-19 vaccines, if only they had the data and know-how.
Four of the potential production plants in Ireland are owned by Merck, an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Two of Merck’s plants are based in Cork, and the other two are in Carlow and Swords.