Prince Harry compares Covid pandemic to HIV in People’s Vaccine video

93

View
comments

Prince Harry today compared the Covid-19 crisis to HIV, claiming in a YouTube video that ‘corporate greed and political failure have prolonged both pandemics’.

The Duke of Sussex told viewers today that there were ‘striking parallels between Covid-19 and another deadly pandemic, one that emerged 40 years ago – HIV’.

The 37-year-old made the comments in a video which featured footage of his late mother Princess Diana who was known for raising awareness surrounding HIV/Aids.

The clip also featured Harry and his wife Meghan Markle during the Global Citizen Live event in New York in September which called for a vaccine equity policy. 

Today’s video came out on World Aids Day as part of the People’s Vaccine Alliance coalition of groups and activists which is campaigning for a ‘people’s vaccine’. 

The alliance is backed by organisations including UNAids – the joint United Nations programme on HIV/Aids – as well as Oxfam and Amnesty International. 

Harry also wrote a letter to World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima, saying how ‘deeply grateful’ Diana would have been for their achievements. 

And he called on big pharmaceutical firms to end ‘vaccine monopolies’ and share technology so nations in the developing world can start producing Covid vaccines.

However some experts have challenged whether rich countries not sharing vaccines are to blame for lower vaccination in the developing world. 

Speaking about South Africa, British immunologist Dr Andrew Croxford said last week that ‘major vaccine hesitancy’ is stifling its jab drive, adding that no country would be able to vaccinate its whole population ‘even if you fly a billion doses over’. 

Prince Harry said in today’s clip: ‘There are striking parallels between Covid-19 and another deadly pandemic, one that emerged 40 years ago – HIV.’

He then added: ‘This is a story about how corporate greed and political failure have prolonged both pandemics, and what we can do to stop it.’

The Duke said: ‘In the early 2000s, a wave of activism helped break drug company monopolies, giving millions of people access to generic medicines at a fraction of the price.’

And he continued: ‘By ending vaccine monopolies and sharing technology, companies in the developing world can start producing Covid vaccines too.’

The video concluded with Harry and Ms Byanyima saying: ‘Break the monopolies, share the know-how, deliver a people’s vaccine.’ 

Meanwhile Harry also wrote a letter today to Mr Ghebreyesus and Ms Byanyima, saying how ‘deeply grateful’ Diana would have been for their achievements.

The letter was read out by the WHO’s director of global HIV, hepatitis and STIs programmes Dr Meg Doherty at the WHO and UNAids event.

Harry wrote: ‘On this World Aids Day we recognise the 40 years that have shaped life for many. 

‘We honour those whose lives have been cut short and reaffirm our commitment to a scientific community that has worked tirelessly against this disease.

‘My mother would be deeply grateful for everything you stand for and have accomplished. We all share that gratitude, so thank you.’

He said there had been a ‘spectacular failure’ over coronavirus vaccine equity.

‘Vaccinating the world is a test of our moral character and we are experiencing a spectacular failure when it comes to global vaccine equity,’ Harry wrote.

‘Similar to the Aids crisis, we’ve yet again revealed over the past year that the value of life depends on whether you were born and/or live in a rich nation, or a developing country.’

Harry described the emergence of the Omicron variant as of ‘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 pandemic,’ he wrote.

The Duke warned that repeating the failures surrounding the Aids pandemic would be a ‘betrayal of the next generation’.

He said: ‘It’s time to draw from the lessons we learned throughout the HIV/Aids pandemic, where millions died unnecessarily due to deep inequities in access to treatment.

‘Are we really comfortable repeating the failures of the past? Everything I’ve learnt, from the youth of Sentebale, tells me not.

‘They see how repeating these mistakes is destructive and self-defeating, it is a betrayal of the next generation.

‘Let’s spend today celebrating and building on the work of champions who turned what was once a death sentence into a manageable condition.

‘Let’s spend tomorrow continuing our efforts to save lives and make a difference.’

In today’s video, Harry was filmed speaking in New York in September, saying: ‘Many of these vaccines were publicly funded, they are your vaccines – you paid for them.’

The Duke had been at Global Citizen Live, an event which urged leaders to adopt a vaccine equity policy, at which he labelled pandemic a ‘human rights crisis’. 

Harry also said at the event, where he was joined by Meghan, that pharmaceutical companies should waive their intellectual property rights on Covid vaccines. 

In a speech earlier that month, he blamed overwhelming ‘mass-scale misinformation’ for Covid vaccine hesitancy and urged governments to address vaccine inequality.

Harry, who was praising the team behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab at the GQ Awards, spoke of a ‘huge disparity between who can and cannot access the vaccine’.

The Duke also said at the time that less than 2 per cent of people in the developing world had received a jab with many healthcare workers remaining unvaccinated. 

And at Global Citizen VAX Live in May, he said: ‘This pandemic will not end unless we act collectively with an unprecedented commitment to our shared humanity.’  

In response to today’s video, Christine Stegling, executive director at the Frontline Aids charity, told MailOnline: ‘This is not the first time the governments of rich countries have moved on from a problem as soon as it appears to be in someone else’s back yard.

‘We saw it with Aids, where the transformative impact of HIV treatments in rich countries has seen urgency, focus and funding for the global response fall sharply, and we are starting to see the same thing with Covid-19. We cannot allow history to repeat itself.

‘The Covid-19 pandemic is far from over, but high-income, high-vaccination countries are already starting to talk about future pandemics, while turning a blind eye to those that continue to impact poorer regions.

‘This will only prolong the pain of existing pandemics, placing millions of lives at risk. We urgently need a People’s Vaccine to benefit everyone, everywhere.’