Pri Podcasts

In the fourth episode of the PRI’s human rights podcast series, Nikolaj Pedersen speaks to biomedical researcher, health rights advocate, and Head of Policy at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, Els Torreele and Peter Hughes, fund manager at AXA Investment Managers about COVID-19 vaccine ownership and distribution and what investors can do to promote fair and equal access. As of July this year, more than 80% of vaccine doses globally had been given to individuals in high and upper-middle-income countries. Only 1% of people in low-income countries at the time had had at least one dose.  The United Nations commissioner on human rights has stated that "affordable, non-discriminatory access to the vaccine is a human right" and because of the failure to provide fair and equal access to the vaccine the World Health Organisation has stated that the world "is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure". The economic consequences are also grave with an estimated $9.2 trillion lost if governments fa