Covid-19: The cost of the cure

The Covid-19 pandemic has put the affordability of pharmaceuticals and the importance of universal pricing at centre stage. Pharmaceutical pricing has multiple effects on the lives of people, economies, and health and social systems across the globe, including in South Africa.

The costs associated with mass immunisation programmes are considerable and it will take the world’s poorest countries a decade or more to recover from the economic impact.

This is according to the Oxfam report The Inequality Virus, which was launched this week and asserts that Covid-19 has exposed, fed off and widened existing wealth, gender and race inequalities.