|
 In a letter, also addressed to the British health, trade, business
and foreign ministers, the scientists asked Johnson to support the
World Trade Organization's (WTO) Trade-Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement.
British officials have been sceptical about the usefulness of the
waivers, but said they were open to talks with the United States and
other WTO members after pressure from charities and calls from
developing nations to tackle vaccine inequity.
"The crisis posed by the Omicron variant is a stark warning of the
dangers posed by global vaccine inequality," the letter signed by
around 300 epidemiology, health and infectious diseases experts
said.
"The pandemic does not stop at the UK border".
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 The experts also urged Britain to persuade
pharmaceutical companies to share their
technology and know-how with the World Health
Organization to accelerate vaccine supply to low
and middle-income countries and ward off further
coronavirus variants.
Omicron, which was first identified in southern
Africa and Hong Kong, is spreading far faster
than previous variants of the coronavirus, and
is not likely to help countries achieve
so-called herd immunity against COVID-19,
according to leading disease experts.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru;
Editing by ShounakDasgupta)
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