The European Falcon Network of the International Falcon Movement demands that the European Commission and European governments should drop their stance on vaccination patents and work towards the immediate waiver of patents on Covid-19 vaccinations and relevant medical equipment.

Without a global response to the Coronavirus, we will only very slowly get rid of the pandemic situation. The high frequency of mutations means that without effective immunization of large parts of the world population, ever new variants will appear that could prolong the pandemic over most of the lifetime of children and young people everywhere.

We will not accept lifetime in a constant biological state of emergency just in order to secure the patent rights and profits of European corporations.

Intellectual property rights are an important barrier in the access to resources needed to fight the pandemic in a globally effective way – and most easily removed. The waiver of patents is blocked right now by the European Commission and powerful European countries like Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland. These countries have also ignored the proposed WHO moratorium on booster shots and began vaccinating their populations for a third time, while lifesaving vaccinations and medical equipment remain practically inaccessible in many parts of the world. This affects largely countries which anyway have less resources to build up functioning a health care infrastructure.

European Corporations have made unthinkable profits on the backs of most people in the world. This cannot continue. It is time to end the patents on resources vital to the fight against the pandemic.