THREE years into Covid-19 pandemic, 200 world leaders have said “never again” to the “scar” of global vaccine inequality.

In a letter co-ordinated by the People’s Vaccine Alliance and published today, the grouping of world leaders, Nobel laureates, civil society organisations, faith leaders and health experts are calling on governments to “never again” allow “profiteering and nationalism” to come before the needs of humanity.

The letter marks three years since the World Health Organisation (WHO) first labelled Covid-19 as a pandemic.

Former UN secretary-general Ban Ki Moon, former president of Malawi Joyce Banda and former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso were among the signatories.

Nobel laureates such as Joseph Stiglitz and Sir Richard Roberts also signed the letter, which put forward a scathing analysis of the world’s pandemic response. 

Covid-19 countermeasures were developed and delivered with enormous public funding, the signatories say. Therefore, they are “the people’s vaccines, the people’s tests and the people’s treatments.” 

But instead of distributing Covid-19 vaccines, tests and treatments based on need, pharmaceutical companies sold doses first to the “richest countries with the deepest pockets.”

The signatories say it was “a scar on the world’s conscience” that more lives were not saved.

Signatories call on world leaders to pledge that “never again will the lives of people in wealthy countries be prioritised over the lives of people in the global South. 

“Never again will publicly funded science be locked behind private monopolies. Never again will a company’s desire to make extraordinary profits come before the needs of humanity.”

The letter calls on governments to embed “equity and human rights in pandemic preparedness and response” by treating publicly funded medical innovations as “global common goods used to maximise the public benefit, not private profits.”

The signatories want to see these principles embedded in the Pandemic Accord, which is currently under negotiation at the WHO.

People’s Vaccine Alliance co-chair Winnie Byanyima said: “In the Aids pandemic, pharmaceutical monopolies have resulted in an appalling number of unnecessary deaths — and it has been the same story with Covid-19.” 

She added that unless countries “break the monopolies that prevent people from accessing medical products, humanity will sleepwalk unprepared into the next pandemic.”

Mr Moon said: “The great tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the failure of multilateralism and the absence of solidarity between the global North and global South. 

“We need a return to genuine co-operation between nations in our preparation and response to global threats. “