As a clinically vulnerable NHS patient, I want to see vaccine justice

This blog is written by NHS patient and Just Treatment supporter Willow.

I’ve always supported the NHS, as did my father, who was a doctor. I’ve had to rely on it heavily these last 10 years. In 2011 I was admitted to hospital with acute respiratory failure - it took two years for me to finally be diagnosed with a very rare autoimmune disease. It would be no exaggeration to say that the very skilled, kind and clever rheumatologist who made the diagnosis saved my life. 

From the diagnosis, I went on to start treatment with a drug called cyclophosphamide. Six doses later, my lung efficiency had gone from a life threateningly low 20% to 38%. I’ve been on immunosuppressant drugs ever since. Now, all these years later, my lungs are at about 60% and more or less stable. 

It’s awful when I get any respiratory infection, and I would probably end up in intensive care if I got COVID. Because of the pandemic I’ve been shielding nearly the whole time since March 2020. I’ve managed to see my daughter and meet up with family members in the summer, when we could be outside. But that’s about it.

I’m very grateful to the NHS for the four vaccine doses I’ve had so far, but I feel angry that the government has failed so dramatically to ensure global, equitable vaccine access. Instead of challenging the pharmaceutical company monopolies that are perpetuating the vaccine apartheid that we’re in, they’re taking the side of private profit - protecting companies like Pfizer as they rake in record breaking profits on COVID vaccines.

Not only is their approach putting lives at risk overseas, but allowing large populations to go unvaccinated also means that there is more opportunity for new variants - like Omicron - to emerge and spread. This is particularly risky for people like me who are clinically vulnerable to COVID. It puts pressure on an already overburdened NHS and puts those who are shielding at greater risk.

An Inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic will soon begin. Will you join us in making sure that the government’s failure to tackle vaccine equity forms a part of it? Click here to add your name to the open letter to the Chair of the inquiry.

We must make sure that the government answers for the decisions it has made - decisions which have put lives at risk both in the UK and overseas.