TOith the Covid-19 pandemic and its corollary on variants and vaccines, the health issue entered fully into the debate at the Dakar Forum on Peace and Security in Africa. Faced with the attitude of rich countries against South Africa after the discovery of the Omicron variant, the South African presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese Macky Sall did not go all the way to denounce the behavior and the measures taken by the countries of the North. “When South African scientists discovered Omicron, they took responsibility for educating the world. And what happened? The countries of the north have imposed restrictions to punish excellence ”, denounced Mr. Ramaphosa, referring to travel bans decided by several countries. “Isolating a country which has sequenced a new variant and demonstrated transparency is not only discriminatory, but also counterproductive, because it is to encourage others” not to be transparent, said Macky Sall in his opening speech of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa.
Beyond the Omicron variant, the supply of vaccines …
At the end of November, a team of South African researchers announced that they had detected a new variant of Covid-19, Omicron. The reaction was immediate: many countries closed their borders, banishing southern Africa in a matter of hours. “This is not acceptable,” hammered Mr. Sall, quoted by AFP. Mr. Ramaphosa also said he was particularly “disappointed” with the attitude of advanced countries on vaccines. Referring to the supply of the various countries, he accused the rich countries “of giving only the crumbs. The rapacity they show is particularly disappointing, especially when they call themselves our partners, ”he said.
… and the patent file in question
Regarding the thorny issue of the laborious negotiation on a temporary lifting of patents protecting anti-Covid vaccines, he said that “the refusal” of the rich countries allows “to really see what their interests are”. World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations have stalled, as India and South Africa have called for the temporary removal of intellectual property protections to boost protection. production in developing countries and address glaring inequalities in vaccine access. This idea meets with fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical giants, in the name of their financial effort in research, and from their host countries, for whom patents do not represent the major obstacle to the increase in vaccine production. , and who fear that such a measure will end up harming the capacity for innovation.
