LAHORE: Challenging the hegemony of pharmaceutical corporations over vaccine manufacturing, healthcare activists belonging to a civil society organisation made a human chain here on Tuesday and demanded the government to allocate more funds for public healthcare systems.
The activists belonging to the Labour Education Foundation, holding each other’s hands, showed solidarity with those who died of Covid-19 because the government could not arrange timely tests, treatment and vaccines for them, and the doctors and paramedics who worked day and night for the patients during the pandemic.
They shouted slogans against the pharma industry alleging it prefers profit over human lives by refusing to transfer technology to the poor nations for local and affordable manufacturing of vaccines, tests and treatments for deadly diseases.
The activists demanded a global strategy under the World Health Organization (WHO) to better prepare the world for climate change-induced health crises likely to hit the world in future.
They sought production of life-saving vaccines and medicines under generic names so that low-priced drugs could be made available to the poor.
The activists also demanded the World Trade Organization (WTO) should at least announce a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights (IPR) for all vaccines meant for fatal diseases.
