<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/16/disgusting-outrage-jj-exports-tens-millions-vaccine-doses-africa-eu" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class="">https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/16/disgusting-outrage-jj-exports-tens-millions-vaccine-doses-africa-eu</a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; background-color: white;" class=""><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">'Disgusting': Outrage as J&J Exports Tens of Millions of Vaccine Doses From Africa to EU<o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class="">By Jake Johnson<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;" class="">8/16/21</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;" class=""> </span></div><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white;" class=""><strong class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">The U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant</span></strong><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class=""> Johnson & Johnson has recently exported tens of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses from South Africa to rich European Union countries under an "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/business/johnson-johnson-vaccine-africa-exported-europe.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">unusual</span></b></a>" contract clause, a revelation that came as the African continent struggles to inoculate even a small percentage of its population against the surging Delta variant.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div style="border-style: none none none solid; border-left-width: 4.5pt; border-left-color: rgb(208, 208, 208); padding: 0in 0in 0in 14pt; background-color: white;" class=""><p class="pullquote" style="margin: 2rem 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 25.5pt; border: none; padding: 0in; box-sizing: border-box; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial; float: right; right: -140px;"><b class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65); letter-spacing: -0.05pt;" class=""><br class=""><br class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></b></p></div><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">In an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/16/world-billions-covid-vaccine-doses-africa-unprotected" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">op-ed</span></b></a> for <em class="">The Guardian</em> on Monday, former U.K. Prime Minster Gordon Brown wrote that "millions of Covid vaccines manufactured in Africa that should have saved the lives of Africans have been shipped to Europe in recent weeks."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Citing unnamed African leaders, Brown added that "this month and next, about 10 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines filled and finished at the Aspen factory in South Africa will be exported to Europe, at the very time that Africa is grappling with its deadliest wave of Covid-19 infections yet."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"Compared with the swift development of the pathbreaking Covid vaccines, getting shots into all the world's arms should be straightforward," Brown continued. "But vaccine nationalism—and Europe's neocolonial approach to global health—is dividing the world into rich and protected people, who live, and those who are poor, unprotected and at risk of dying."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">The People's Vaccine Alliance, a international coalition of advocacy groups campaigning for equitable vaccine distribution, reacted with outrage to Brown's column, calling the export of much-needed vaccines out of Africa "disgusting."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Brown's allegation that millions of J&J vaccine doses have been shipped out of Africa—where less than 2% of the population is fully vaccinated—was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/16/business/johnson-johnson-vaccine-africa-exported-europe.html" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">confirmed</span></b></a> by the <em class="">New York Times</em>, which reported Monday that the pharmaceutical giant "had shipped 32 million doses in recent months, although that does not capture the full number that have left South Africa."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"This is further proof that the world cannot trust a handful of pharmaceutical companies to fairly allocate vaccines across the world."<br class="">—Mohga Kamal-Yanni, People's Vaccine Alliance<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Last year, the South African pharmaceutical company Aspen—the largest drug company in Africa—<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-aspen-pharmacare/south-africas-aspen-agrees-initial-deal-to-make-jj-vaccine-candidate-idUSKBN27I0N8" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">reached a deal</span></b></a> with J&J under which Aspen is tasked with carrying out the "fill and finish" stage of vaccine production.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"The J&J vaccine was supposed to be one of Africa's most important weapons against Covid," <a href="https://twitter.com/peoplesvaccine/status/1427311970852737025" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">said</span></b></a> the People's Vaccine Alliance. "Instead, at least 32 million doses have been shipped out of South Africa to the E.U. as millions suffer and die."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">The <em class="">Times</em> noted that while "many Western countries have kept domestically manufactured doses for themselves," that "wasn't possible in South Africa because of an unusual stipulation in the contract the government signed this year with Johnson & Johnson."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"The confidential contract, reviewed by the <em class="">Times</em>, required South Africa to waive its right to impose export restrictions on vaccine doses," the newspaper reported. "Johnson & Johnson had always planned for some vaccines produced by Aspen to leave Africa, but it has never disclosed how many doses it was actually exporting."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"South Africa is still waiting to receive the overwhelming majority of the 31 million vaccine doses it ordered from Johnson & Johnson," the <em class="">Times</em> observed.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Popo Maja, a spokesperson for the South African health ministry, told the <em class="">Times </em>in a statement that the government had no leverage to reject the stipulation of the contract, under which the African continent is supposed to receive a percentage of the finished vaccine doses. Originally that percentage was just 10%, but it was later revised so that 40% of the vaccine doses finished by Aspen would go to Europe and 60% to Africa through the end of September.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"The government was not given any choice," Maja said. "Sign contract or no vaccine."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">South Africa is currently reeling from a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-south-africa-riots-vaccination-delays-3rd-wave-hits-hospitals/" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">third coronavirus wave</span></b></a> that was driven largely by the highly transmissible Delta mutation, which overwhelmed the country's healthcare system and pushed the nation's total Covid-19 death toll over 77,000. The country has officially recorded more than 2.6 million coronavirus cases.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">The African continent as a whole has been <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/09/rich-nations-refuse-share-vaccines-africa-suffers-most-dire-pandemic-week" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">battered</span></b></a> by the coronavirus as governments there have struggled to launch vaccination programs due in large part to inadequate supplies—shortages that experts have <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/wto-going-on-lengthy-vacation-without-progress-on-vaccine-intellectual-property-barriers-is-a-shocking-moral-political-and-economic-failure/" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">attributed</span></b></a> to the pharmaceutical industry's monopoly control over vaccine production and critical technology.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">In an effort to boost the global vaccine supply, South Africa joined India last year in proposing a temporary suspension of patent protections to allow for the manufacturing of generic alternatives in low-income nations. Rich members of the World Trade Organization, including Germany and the U.K., have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/27/3-million-people-have-died-covid-rich-nations-began-obstructing-vaccine-patent" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">stonewalled</span></b></a> the proposal.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Germany is one of the E.U. countries that has received J&J vaccine doses finished in South Africa.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">Fatima Hassan, founder and director of the South Africa-based Health Justice Initiative, <a href="https://twitter.com/_HassanF/status/1427246502070693893" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);" class=""><b class=""><span style="color: rgb(19, 128, 232);" class="">said</span></b></a> the arrangement that J&J reportedly forced on South Africa is "the sickening result of the free market in a pandemic—while Africa waits for supplies and gets a drip feed, more vaccine stock is diverted to Europe."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"This is grotesque," Hassan added. "This is why the vaccine contracts must be disclosed—now. It is in the public interest to know what other rights have been waived, for whose benefit, and why we are being drip fed."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">In a statement Monday, Mohga Kamal-Yanni, senior health policy adviser to the People's Vaccine Alliance, said that "while South Africa was experiencing one of the worst humanitarian crises to arise from Covid-19, J&J diverted desperately needed vaccines to wealthy countries."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"It's utterly abhorrent and shows a total disregard for African life," said Kamal-Yann. "This is further proof that the world cannot trust a handful of pharmaceutical companies to fairly allocate vaccines across the world. Pharma executives seem all too happy to write off African deaths to line their own pockets."<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; text-decoration-thickness: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; color: rgb(64, 65, 65);" class="">"Without urgent action, more of these tragedies could be around the corner," Kamal-Yann added. "It is time for governments to break pharmaceutical companies' monopolies on knowledge and technology of vaccines and other tools to deal with Covid-19. We should develop domestic manufacturing in low-and-middle-income countries, not siphon off doses to the rich world."</span></p></div><br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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