Two years since lockdown - and pharma greed is still costing lives

This blog was written by NHS patient and Just Treatment supporter Melanie Duddridge.

It was 6th March 2020 that I decided to start lockdown for my family and I - nearly three weeks before the UK’s official lockdown started. Covid-19 was very recently a topic of discussion, and, as always, it was up to me to make medical life or death decisions to protect my family. 

I have been immunosuppressed since 1990, when I was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. I am asthmatic. I am a cancer survivor. I was accustomed to adding that extra layer of caution, because I had been medically vulnerable most of my life. Now we were learning that a new dangerous virus was killing people in other parts of the world. It consumed me from the moment I found out. I couldn't wait for the government to design a plan to help people like me – the clinically extremely vulnerable. I had to take action into my own hands. 

I immediately retreated to my bedroom and didn't come out until I’d had my first vaccine in April 2021. The vaccine offered a glimpse of hope for most people, except no one could say if it worked for people with suppressed immune systems. I have very rarely felt safe in the past two years. I have felt forgotten, ignored, lonely, guilty, sad, nervous, and having those feelings intensely and extensively has no doubt changed me. I have lost my community, my confidence and my place in the world. 

“I have lost my community, my confidence and my place in the world. ”

It wasn't until February 2022 that I had access to an antibody test, and a fourth vaccine. I could finally see a brighter side of life. I never stopped masking, washing my hands or keeping my distance, but with the test results and availability of FPP3 masks - the most effective against Covid-19, I finally felt I had some freedom. A freedom which I still wouldn't have without the jabs.

When I think about people who are not as fortunate as me, who have not received vaccines because of the global vaccine apartheid we’re living in, I feel pain in my heart. It is hard to believe that millions of people are literally facing death and are dying because they can’t access Covid vaccines and treatments - particularly when we’ve had access to vaccines in the UK for over a year now. This seems criminal. So many families torn apart, children left without parents, parents left without their kids… it seems inconceivable from where I sit. 

So why are we in this situation, where vaccines and treatments that exist cannot be accessed by so many who need them? The answer is steeped in greed, neglect and inequality. These are what sickeningly stand between all these people – left to themselves – and their potential last breath. People, just like you and me. 

Access to life-saving vaccines should be a universal right. But by protecting Covid monopolies, the UK government is among those choosing to stand on the side of pharmaceutical companies’ profits rather than saving the lives of millions around the world. There are over 100 manufacturers around the world waiting to produce mRNA vaccines, yet the monopolies held by big pharma prevent them from doing so. In a global pandemic it’s almost unthinkable that this could be the case. We need an end to these harmful monopolies that are standing in the way of people accessing the vaccines and treatments that they need.