Global Public Health

Global disparities in access to COVID-19 vaccines exposed profound weaknesses in the laws and institutions designed to advance global health governance and equity. The availability and affordability of vaccines were profoundly constrained by vaccine hoarding, the failures of the COVAX mechanism and COVID-Technology Access Pool, inadequate domestic manufacturing capacity, and stringent intellectual property rights. The push by low and middle-income countries for a TRIPS waiver to augment autonomy and technical capacity have spilled over into ongoing negotiations for a pandemic treaty.

These outcomes underscore that past campaigns for affordable medicines have done little to disrupt the dominance in global health of economic interests in the Global North, nor to augment the autonomy and technical capacity of countries in the Global South when it comes to medicines and intellectual property rights. These weaknesses in pathways towards just and equitable access to essential vaccines have had profound health, equity, and human rights impacts, and have undermined health system strengthening and universal health coverage and domestic and global governance of COVID-19 everywhere.

In this special article collection, we call for innovative research that examines what it would take to achieve vaccine justice in the next pandemic health threat. We seek to publish and highlight novel research and analysis to develop new knowledge and influence policy and practice in multiple areas implicated in this question. We particularly call for original research, review, and perspective articles around the following non-exhaustive list of topics and subtopics:

• Technology transfer, benefit sharing, and open science
• Regional manufacturing capacity and the TRIPS waiver
• The draft pandemic treaty and the International Health Regulations
• COVAX, the WHO and other international institutions
• The relationship between human rights and global health law
• The relationship between research and development, innovation, and access
• Solidarity, representation, equity, and decolonization in vaccine governance and law
• The conceptual, normative, and legal relationship between human rights and equity
• The accountability of corporate and philanthropic entities
• The balance between the right to health and intellectual property rights
• Vaccine adherence, distribution, and public health systems
• Universal health coverage, immunization, and public trust

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Dr. Lisa Forman

Lisa Forman is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Human Rights and Global Health Equity at the University of Toronto. She is an international human rights law scholar who focuses on health equity and human rights.

Dr. Omowamiwa Kolawole

Omowamiwa Kolawole is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with legal and public health training, who focuses on human rights and health systems.

 

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