In this #Fem4PeoplesVaccine podcast episode, we take a deep dive into the intricate relationship between inequality and intersectionality with the COVID-19 pandemic as our setting. We explore the pandemic’s profound impact on access to health and medicines. Factors such as race, class, and gender intersect and profoundly shape a person’s ability to navigate and recover from a pandemic. 

To shed light on these crucial issues, we are joined by Cristiane Pereira, a researcher from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who has focused on the pandemic's effects on women and international cooperation's impact on the Brazilian health system. Cristiane is in conversation with Professor Sara Davis from Griffith University, Australia, who serves as the deputy director of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Excellence for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. 

#pandemicresponse #access2medicines

The International Health Regulations is the United Nation's legal framework that guides countries on how to deal with public health emergencies of international concern. With COVID-19, the amendment process of the IHR became an urgent matter for Global South countries. In parallel, a proposal for a Pandemic Instrument also came into the picture.

In this episode, Indian feminist Vanita Mukherjee (DAWN) interviews Indian lawyer Nithin Ramakrishnan (TWN) on the origins of IHR, the proposals for its amendment, how it affects people and the politics at play.

The UN Special Rapporteur is appointed to watch, monitor, visit countries and investigate specific rights and the ways in which they are protected and promoted. They identify and analyse trends and come up with recommendations.

On this #Fem4PeoplesVaccine podcast episode, Chee Yoke Ling (Third World Network) interviews two UN Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Health. They have both been in a ‘unique’ situation where the world was caught in the midst of a pandemic. Tlaleng Mofokeng took on the role in May 2020 when COVID-19 exploded across the world and Anand Grover's mandate endured the thick of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, between 2008 and 2014. 

These historic moments have many parallels, particularly when we consider how intellectual property was the focus of attention by both civil society and States. They challenged Big Pharma’s monopoly in the struggle for universal access to antiretrovirals during the HIV/AIDS pandemic and currently are doing the same for COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics.

Anand Grover is a renowned Indian human rights lawyer. He is the founder of the Lawyer's Collective and is a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. He was the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health from 2008 to 2014.

Tlaleng Mofokeng is a South African physician and activist. Her work focuses on gender equality and universal health access, participating in spaces for the defence of the right to abortion. She is the current Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health.

The recent declarations of success against the COVID-19 virus are well known to HIV/AIDS activists. Behind these false allegations, there are many political interests. Governments evoke the "urgency of normal", but even if this can be reasoned via economic arguments, it neglects the most vulnerable populations who still develop severe cases of the disease, including many cases leading to deaths to this day (almost 2.000 confirmed deaths per day). It also leaves out entire nations where vaccination rates are insufficient—only 25% of people in low-income countries received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, it neglects the imminent rise of new and more infectious variants.

If early in the COVID-19 pandemic one of the political conflicts was between denialists on one side and public health experts, activists and progressive governments on the other, now experts and activists are alone on this side of the fight.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has a lot to teach us about how we think of health and rights but also about geopolitics more broadly. It's a historic moment in global public health, and if we look at it carefully, we can find clues to how global health dynamics came to be what it is today. It can help us shed light on the failures to deal with COVID-19 in a just and equitable way and perhaps point towards new directions for resolving this lingering pandemic and being better prepared for the next one.

Listen to Dr Richard Parker, Emeritus Professor of Columbia University and a veteran HIV/AIDS activist dissect the "end of the pandemic" discourse.

Although the right to the highest standard of health is a universal one, the COVID-19 epidemic did not and does not reflect this. The severity of covid-19 is validated in a recent article published in BMJ. COVID-19 didn't cause the world's imbalances, but it didn't help, either. Neither did the activity (or lack thereof) of individual countries.

But there is a way to make States accountable. Constanza Pauchulo (IWRAW AP), Camila Maia (CELS) & Meena Jagannath (Movement Law Lab) tell the stories of how they activated the international human rights system against the failure of States and also pharma companies to prevent and eliminate gender and racial discrimination in the pandemic.

Constanza Pauchulo coordinates IWRAW Asia Pacific’s programme on feminist approaches to economics and developments, and supports its programme on countering human rights regression and UN capture.

Camila Barretto Maia has been a member of CELS (Center of Legal and Social Studies), based in Argentina, since 2010 where she currently coordinates the international department.

Meena Jagannath is a movement lawyer, is the Director of Global Programs at Movement Law Lab where she develops the Global Network of Movement Lawyers.

After 2 long years since the waiver in intellectual property was tabled, what has the WTO delivered on equitable access to Covid-19 health technology? More specifically, how can we make sense of what happened at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference and what does that mean for countries’ ability to respond to the pandemic?

Tune in to the newest episode of the #Fem4PeoplesVaccine podcast. Join Ranja Sengupta in an interview with Chee Yoke Ling, Director at the Third World Network, who was actively engaged in the high level advocacy process for the waiver. Yoke Ling shares her assessment of the WTO’s 12th Ministerial Conference process and outcomes, what we can celebrate, and what challenges lie ahead as the pandemic unfolds.

#Fem4PeoplesVaccine #Covid #TRIPSWaiver #EndCOVIDMonopolies #vaccines #trade #gender

Join Indian immunologist Dr Satyajit Rath in a conversation with Brazilian public health expert Ariane Abreu on the Covid-19 trajectory and its parallels with other pandemics.

Navigating through the clutter of information on whether omicron is the end of the pandemic, Dr Rath and Ariane discuss the limitations and blindspots of such widely disseminated discourses when considering such stark differences in the availability of health data and resources across and within countries. They try to interpret the Covid-19 virus trends in light of past experiences, how governments have responded to it and who are those most affected by it.

Dr Satyajit Rath is an eminent immunologist, physician and pathologist. After acting as a professor and scientist from the National Institute of Immunology in India for two and a half decades and as a research fellow and associate in different universities across the world, he is now an honorary faculty member at the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research in Pune.

Ariane Abreu is currently a real-world evidence principal at IQVIA. She has a bachelor's degree in public health and master's in evaluation of health technologies. She is specialised in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmacoeconomic for observational and clinical studies. Previously she worked as a researcher at the Epidemiology and Clinical Research Department of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) focusing on global health, advocacy and neglected tropical diseases.

#Fem4PeoplesVaccine #covid #immunology #omicron #vaccine #wto #monkeypox #sars #mers #pharma #globalhealth #publichealth #satyajitrath

Join Dr Hyo Yoon Kang (Kent University Law School) and Shree Baphna (FPV) in a discussion that sheds light on the structural perspective of the TRIPS waiver, the TRIPS agreement, intellectual property, and the knowledge economy more broadly. 

Fortuitously, this episode is launched as the WTO members meet to discuss the TRIPS waiver in the lead-up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference on June 12th, 2022. 

Dr Hyo Yoon Kang is a Reader in Law at the Kent University Law School. She earned her PhD in Law at the European University Institute. She serves on the Governing Board of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property (ISHTIP) and on the Editorial Advisory Board of Economy and Society. During her time outside academia, she has been trained in classical music and in financial modeling. 

The WTO Ministerial Conference—one of the most important events in the organization’s calendar, when State representatives gather—is approaching. On the week of June 13th, the TRIPS Waiver will be on the agenda of the day and pressure for a consensus will be high.

Since its tabling, the EU and the US have pulled out all the tricks in their hats in an attempt to block the measure designed to fight vaccine inequality. Listen to the discussion between Clara Alves (MSF Brazil) and Sangeeta Shashikant (TWN), who has been at the forefront of the advocacy work at the WTO. Sangeeta shares her precious perceptions about the measure, multilateralism issues, pandemic preparedness and activism.

Clara Alves is Humanitarian Affairs and Advocacy Specialist specialist at Doctors without Borders (MSF) in Brazil. She is an access to medicines activist, has a degree in International Relations, a Master's in Public Health from the Rio de Janeiro State University (IMS/UERJ). 

Sangeeta Shashikant is a legal and policy advisor for Third World Network. She obtained her Masters in Laws from the University College London and her Bachelors in Laws, from the University of Malaya. 

All eyes on Brazil? While on the global level we've been discussing the TRIPS waiver tabled at the World Trade Organization, Brazil has approved a bill that could set a precedent for other global South countries to use compulsory licenses in an easier and more comprehensive way. But Brazilian President Bolsonaro vetoed it. Rajnia de Vito (FPV) interviews Felipe Carvalho (GTPI/ABIA) on this topic and the possible developments not only for Brazil but for the world in terms of technology transfer and South-South cooperation.

Rajnia de Vito is an associate of the Feminists for a People's Vaccine campaign. She is a feminist activist, has a degree in International Relations, a Master's in Sociology from the Federal Fluminense University and is a specialist in gender and sexuality.