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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".
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 Shounak
Dasgupta)
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