End The Hypocrisy

End The Hypocrisy

In WHO negotiations for a Pandemic Accord, the US and EU oppose concrete solutions that would allow all countries to increase access to medicines in future health crises, stating that intellectual property rights are the cornerstone of medical innovation and cannot be undermined. At the same time, domestically the US and EU do not hesitate to implement measures to overcome IP barriers and increase their ability to secure medicines for their own populations. They must reverse this blatant hypocrisy.They must reverse this blatant hypocrisy.

Join us in demanding THAT the EU and USA end their hypocrisy

False 'EU-U.S. Joint statement' with the word 'FALSE' emblazoned in front of it

FALSE STATEMENT

On 13th February, the alliance used @INB_updates X account to orchestrate a hoax joint statement announcing a supposed US-EU reversal on pandemic intellectual property rules. This was to highlight the “blatant hypocrisy” of the US and EU’s domestic vs international positions.

In fact, the hypocrisy continues. And we must call it out.

Read our press release or deep dive into our policy briefing to learn more about this hypocrisy, and join us in calling on the US and EU to end their double standards.

What can you do?

1. call out the hypocrisy

COVID-19 proved that double standards between richer and poorer countries hurts us all. To tackle future health crises, we must embed equity in the Pandemic Accord.

If you agree, call out this hypocrisy on X.

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2. spread the word

Encourage friends, family and your social network to watch and share the video, and join the worldwide call for an equitable #PandemicAccord

3. scrutinise negotiators

We must raise our voices so country representatives at WHO’s International Negotiating Body know that we demand that robust language on equity is embedded in a Pandemic Accord. Only then can we ensure that, in the next health crisis, the lives of everyone, everywhere are valued equally.

Take to X to call on key players to deliver a Pandemic Accord that protects everyone, everywhere from future pandemics.

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“The hypocrisy of the US and EU is astounding. They adopt and propose measures to remove intellectual property barriers to enable access to these products for their own citizens. Yet... they are stopping lower-income countries from doing the same thing.”
Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni, PVA Policy Co-Lead

About the hypocrisy stunt

Vaccine inequity caused at least one COVID-19 death every minute. We will not stand by while rich countries reinforce the system that resulted in inequality for future health crises, whilst doing the opposite at home. It was these double standards that made COVID-19 far more deadly than it should have been, and if these double standards are carried over into the Pandemic Accord, then none of these lessons will have been learned, and the stage is set for rich nations once again to monopolise access to vaccines and treatments.

Along with many in the global health community, we take fake news and the harm it can do very seriously. As such, the decision to pursue this action was taken with careful consideration. With negotiations around the Pandemic Accord at risk of collapse, we felt strongly we had to find a different way of catching attention and of exposing highlighting the deadly double standard of the U.S. and EU positions.

We therefore decided to act in this way and at the same time take clear steps to ensure minimal long-term confusion; issuing a full clarification within 24 hours of the original action and ensuring that accounts and the web pages clearly stated that this was a parody.

Contrary to fake news and misinformation, our intention for the stunt is to make a point about the hypocrisy of the U.S. and EU’s positions, rather than to deceive or damage. The content of the statement is largely not fake; it reflects the actual positions of the U.S. and EU domestically, which are in stark contrast to their stance in the Pandemic Accord negotiations; a hypocrisy that is completely indefensible.

The action has been successful, drawing attention to this issue of rich country hypocrisy- a hypocrisy which must end in the interests of humanity as a whole. We urge the U.S. and EU to reverse their positions, end this hypocrisy and deliver a Pandemic Accord which will truly prepare the world for the next pandemic.