PROFESSOR Mike Holmes (York Press Opinion column Tuesday) asks people in York to “dig deep and help us get this done” as another death from Covid in York hospital is reported.

However, no matter how successful the push to meet the government’s booster jab targets is, we will not beat this deadly virus until everyone has access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.

So far, rich countries have hoarded enough doses to vaccinate their populations almost three times over, while countries in the Global South are set to wait until 2024 for widespread vaccination.

Covid-19 vaccines have all been developed with billions of pounds in public funds and yet pharmaceutical companies operate monopolies on their products, so only they can make and sell them.

This is enforced through patents that confer intellectual property rights on Big Pharma companies, meaning they make vast profits.

Global Justice York, affiliated to Global Justice Now (GJN), is part of a growing movement calling for:

1. The UK government and other rich countries to stop blocking a proposal by South Africa, India and over 100 other countries to suspend patent rules at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)

2. Pharmaceutical companies to share their know how through the WTO.

In a global world, “no-one is safe until everyone is safe”, so I ask your readers to please sign the GJN petition to suspend the patents here: www.globaljusticenow.org.uk/patents.

Ginnie Shaw

Derwent Mews, York