The Duke of Sussex has warned of corporate greed and political failure to prolong the Covid epidemic, comparing a spectacular failure of global vaccine equity to the struggle to access HIV medicines.
Prince Harry said lessons need to be learned from the HIV Aids epidemic in a letter read out at a World Health Organization WHO and UNAIDS event on World Aids Day.
He wrote a test of his moral character by vaccinating the world. It is time to draw from the lessons learned in the HIV Aids epidemic, where millions died unnecessarily due to the inequities in access to treatment.
Are we really comfortable repeating the failures of the past? Everything I have learned from the youth of Sentebale his charity in Botswana and Lesotho is not true. They see how repeating these mistakes is destructive and self-defeating, and it is a betrayal of the next generation. He said his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who helped highlight the work of Aids charities, would be deeply grateful to the scientific community for their work in combating the disease.
Harry and his wife, Meghan, have been vocal campaigners for Covid vaccine equity. In a video for the People's Vaccine, co-narrated by Harry and UNAIDS executive director, Winnie Byanyima, he said there are striking parallels between Covid 19 and another deadly epidemic, one that emerged 40 years ago. This is a story about how corporate greed and political failure have prolonged both the pandemics and what we can do to stop it. Harry said that companies in the developing world can start producing Covid vaccines by ending vaccine monopolies and sharing technology. In a letter addressed to the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Harry wrote: "Vaccinating the world is a test of moral character and we are experiencing a spectacular failure when it comes to global vaccine equity. Like the Aids crisis, we have revealed over the past year that the value of life depends on whether you are born or live in a rich nation or a developing country. He described the emergence of the new Omicron variant of Covid 19 as a deep concern now more than ever, the voiceless majority of the world needs to be heard, and the onus is on our leaders to end this epidemic. He wrote that anything less than that is self-defeating.
That means breaking pharma monopolies that prevent vaccines from getting to communities around the world in need, that means governments honouring their promises and holding each other accountable to them, and that means treating all human lives as equal lives.