Opinion: The richest countries are vaccine hoarders. Try them in international court

Anthony Costello - Millions have died unnecessarily of Covid and millions more will in 2022 unless something changes. Justice must be done says Professor Anthony Costello (UCL Institute for Global Health). Millions more people will die from Covid-19 in the coming year, and most will be unvaccinated. The vaccines that could save millions of lives are not reaching the poor majority of the world's population. The contrast is stark: the current share of people fully vaccinated in high, upper-middle income, lower-middle income and low income countries is 69%, 68%, 30% and 3.5% respectively. The UK, Canada, Germany and other EU states have supported a deliberate policy to withhold vaccines from the poorest countries in the world, and defended an immoral and unethical economic system which places big pharma patents ahead of millions of lives. In this context, is the only option left to ask whether the states facilitating this might be prosecuted in the international criminal court, on the grounds of a crime against humanity? First let's consider the impact so far.