ANC SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC BASED ENQUIRIES INTO THE ORIGIN-TRACING OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, URGES FOR GLOBAL COOPERATION AND DECRIES POLITICISATION OF SUCH ENQUIRIES
Over the last two years people all over the world have been traumatised by the impact of Covid -19 pandemic.
Covid —19 has resulted in the deaths of millions of people and has decimated global economies exacerbating existing inequalities within and between countries.
In early 2020 despite the xenophobic utterances and policies of then President Donald Trump of the US, countries around the globe generally worked together in efforts to limit the spread of the virus. This veneer of solidarity was exposed as soon as research pertaining to candidate vaccines became successful.
High income countries resorted to vaccine nationalism and forms ofvaccine apartheid through pre-purchasing vaccines to inoculate their populations multiple times, hoarding vaccines and blocking a South Africa and Indian sponsored initiative at the WTO that would temporarily waive Intellectual Property related requirements in order to increase equitable access to vaccines life-saving therapeutics and diagnostics.
The resultant outcome of this vaccine nationalism has seen the emergence of variants, increased morbidities and mortality in the developing world and a degrading of economies leading to increased poverty and inequality.
It is in this context that the ANC is of the view that the global community should work to rebuild the initial solidarity displayed at the onset of the pandemic as this is the only way to effectively combat the spread and destruction of the virus.
This solidarity should not only be based on philanthropy based diplomacy with 'excess' vaccines being donated after High income Countries have vaccinated most of the populations in a manner that is contrary to the recommendations of the WHO. What is required is systemic changes to how and where life-saving medicines are produced and consumed.
The vaccines with greater efficacy on preventing Covid-19 should be public goods and not the commodity that has seen the major vaccine producing companies rake in billions. with theft CEOs becoming billionaires while the rest of the globe suffers both death and economic destruction,
This should be the focus of the global community and not re-engagement in politically motivated enquiries on the origin of the pandemic. It is worth pointing out that most of the evidence produced by the scientific community points to natural origins, The ANC would welcome strengthening of evidence from mid-2020 in any further enquiries with the aim of equipping the global community to better understand how corona type viruses spread across species with the aim of preventing similar pandemics. Now is not the time to engage in conspiracy based theories.
We have seen how counter-productive these tendencies were in the 1980s when HIV/AIDS emerged and during the BARS outbreak in 2003.
Research into the origins of the virus is important from a scientific and global health policy perspective and it should not be used as a smoke-screen for geopolitical contestation that has nothing to do with ending the pandemic or understanding how to prevent future pandemics.
Issued by: Lindiwe Zulu Chairperson: ANC NEC International Relations Sub-Committee, 30 July 2021
