Vaccines: A universal public good

Dear Editor:

The Council of Medical Associations of Catalonia (CCMC, Consell de Collegis de Metges de Catalunya) have issued a manifesto titled “Vaccine: a Universal Public Good”, which we would like to reproduce in its entirety below given its interest for all healthcare professionals:

“After one year of the pandemic, everyone is looking hopefully at vaccines, the most effective health intervention we have available to eventually be able to control the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Us health professionals, who live the reality of COVID-19 on a daily basis and are well aware of the consequences of this disease for many citizens, as well as the burden of both pain and suffering it entails, view the vaccination campaign that has just begun as a hopeful reality.

The great role that biomedical research has played in the development of these vaccines deserves our full recognition. It should be remembered that these vaccines are also a reality thanks, in large part, to the public funding of this research.

Despite this, the global production and distribution of anti-COVID-19 vaccines are limited and, therefore, irregular, and uneven, and not everyone will be able to access them. There are many barriers, including patent limitations and a lack of knowledge transfer, to multiplying their global production.

In the face of an unprecedented global crisis, we believe that measures must be taken to respond, over and above any barrier and interest, to public health criteria. The current situation caused by the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccination process meet all those characteristics of exceptionality, exigible equity, and public health interest required to legitimize the below petition:

From the CCMC, we ask governments and international organizations to establish and apply legal mechanisms that, respecting the basic principle of intellectual property, allow for substantially improving the production and distribution capacity of anti-COVID-19 vaccines, in order to produce the maximum number of doses at the lowest possible cost and to use them as quickly as possible throughout the world.

For all of these reasons, we support and have signed the Vaccine Equity Declaration (https://www.who.int/campaigns/annual-theme/year-of-health-and-care-workers-2021/vaccine-equity-declaration) promoted by the World Health Organization. This initiative calls governments, pharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, and world leaders to join forces to accelerate the equitable distribution of vaccines around the world, especially among healthcare workers. We ask all health organizations (professional associations, scientific societies, academic and research institutions, etc.), as well as physicians and other health professionals, to also adhere to this declaration.

In the face of a health threat such as the one that we are currently living, no one is safe until we are all safe. Hence, in this exceptional situation, preserving everyone’s health is the only legitimate goal.”