In the media
Ending the COVID-19 vaccine apartheid - WIDER webinar speaker interviewed for a Finnish development news portal


Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and Jawaharlal Nehru University gave a presentation on vaccine inequality at the WIDER webinar series in June 2021, and was interviewed for an article published on the Finnish development news portal Maailma.net.

In the article Ghosh, who is also an expert in a committee of the World Health Organization (WHO), explains how the wealthier countries are hoarding the corona vaccinations while the developing countries are leaving with only few. By the time of the presentation at least 80 percent of the vaccinations had been given in high income countries. Ghosh says that to her this is a shocking indication of the persisting global inequality.

As a solution to this vaccine apartheid, as she calls it, Ghosh suggests and demands releasing the patents of the vaccines and better sharing of the know how and technology related to vaccines.

Jayati Ghosh gave the presentation on the WIDER webinar series on 22 June 2021. The webinar session was attended by 52 viewers. Ken Shadlen, Professor of Development Studies in the Department of International Development of the London School of Economics and Political Science, joined as discussant to talk about the challenges of increasing production to assure adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccines. Watch or listen the webinar here.

Read the whole article online (in Finnish):

Maailma.net: Rikkaat maat haalivat leijonanosan koronarokotteista ja suojelevat samalla lääkeyhtiöidensä voittoja – Siinä ei ole mitään järkeä, sanoo taloustieteen professori Jayati Ghosh