Reboot steps: share vaccines and resources

Our Reboot Campaign is all about building a better post-coronavirus world. In this blog series, we’re focusing on the steps we need to take to make this happen. The first step we’re calling on the UK government to take is ‘Respond’: share vaccines and resources with the poorest countries so we fight the pandemic together.

Around the world, the coronavirus pandemic has reminded us of how interconnected and interdependent we are. We’ve seen volunteers and local groups work together in new ways to save lives. And we’ve seen how the health and well-being of just one person can impact communities, cities, countries – even continents. 

This is a global crisis: to defeat it, we must defeat it everywhere. 

This kind of worldwide response won’t just happen by itself. A properly funded, coordinated global health action plan is needed. It will take huge joint investment to fund a collaborative response, vaccine development, treatments, and personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers in the poorest countries. 

No one should be stopped from accessing treatments or vaccines because of where they live or what they can afford.

The UK has an important role to play in advocating for an international response that protects the poorest, and in providing finances to make this happen. This is a time when we need to show love ‘with actions and in truth’ to our global neighbours. 

'If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.' (1 John 3:17–18)

The step we’re calling on the UK government to take
In our Reboot Campaign, we’ve called this step ‘Respond’, with the following recommendations: 

The UK government should press for low- and middle-income countries to be given fair and affordable access to PPE, new treatments, technologies and vaccines, free of patents.

The UK government should require any funding it gives to vaccine development to be conditional on:

• The engagement of developing country vaccine manufacturers in the process.
• Full transparency around clinical trials data, the cost of R&D, and pricing mechanisms.
• Open and transparent vaccine trial agreements with developing countries that uphold human dignity and ethical values.

For more detail, take a look at our policy paper.

Get involved
This is one of five steps to a better world that we’re calling on the UK government to take. Will you add your voice to call for a fairer, greener world that works for everyone?

Read the rest of this blog series on our five Reboot steps:
Respond: Share vaccines and resources
Reset: Cancel debt
Recognise: Include faith groups in recovery
Recover: A better world for everyone
Renew: Walking the talk