One year into the pandemic we are witnessing a moral and political failure of the international community to address the pandemic decisively, but it is not too late for a course correction. Trade unions and the civil society movement have a role to play in pressuring governments to protect health and care workers, declare Covid-19 an occupational disease, support the TRIPS Waiver for vaccination to be sped up across the world, and provide universal access to quality public services to ensure a more just and socially inclusive post-Covid-19 world.

On 11 March, one year ago, the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic. Then, there were 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people had lost their lives. One year on, at least 17,000 health workers have lost their lives and most governments still fail to track these losses adequately. Close to 2.6 million deaths have been recorded globally, and thousands more are added every day.

The impacts on jobs and livelihoods are unprecedented. According to the ILO, in January, 93% of the world’s workers lived in countries with workplace closure measures. In 2020, the equivalent to 255 million full-time jobs were lost. This is almost four times higher than during the global financial crisis in 2009.

The end of the pandemic is not yet in clear sight. Global inequalities which the pandemic put in sharp relief plague efforts for stopping the virus in its tracks, as a “vaccine apartheid” unfolds in front of our eyes. As of mid-February, just ten countries had administered 75% of all Covid-19 vaccines, while more than 100 countries had not received a single dose.

And despite the recent roll out of vaccines under the COVAX Facility, 47 of the 79 low and lower-middle income countries are yet to receive vaccines by the second week of March. Meanwhile, high-income countries have vaccinated citizens at an average rate of one dose per second.

We need to make concerted efforts as “no one is safe is everybody is not safe”. And time is of the essence. Emerging Covid-19 variants show more resistance to vaccines and are more infectious. Delaying a comprehensive roll-out of vaccination across countries risks undermining the efforts currently underway, and cost even more lives, as further delay in developing immunity around the world might lead to faster and stronger mutations.

One year into the pandemic, we are looking at a moral and failure of the international community in providing a response based on solidarity. COVAX, the UN-backed “public partnership” set up to facilitate access to Covid-19 technologies, including vaccines, has till now been unable to play a significant role as there is not enough supply of vaccines and rich countries are both hoarding and cutting the line.

The limited supply is also driving up the costs of vaccinations at a time when public finances are under extreme pressure. While in wealthy countries this will add to budget pressure – in the global south it will draw scarce public resources away from lifesaving public services and push many countries closer to debt crisis.

Not surprisingly, one year into the pandemic, half the countries in the world are supporting the TRIPS Waiver proposal that aims to facilitate scaling up of production of Covid-19 medical products. The few rich countries blocking the talks are acting in a short-sighted bid to protect the profits of pharmaceutical companies that are some of the richest companies in the world, at the risk of undermining their own economic recovery. Today's globalized economy cannot recover if only parts of the world are vaccinated. We must clearly put the health of all before wealth of a few.

The need for to campaign for workers’ rights and a better world emerging from the pandemic is more pressing today than it was at the beginning of the pandemic. We have been able to make some gains with our advocacy. At least eight countries have declared Covid-19 an occupational disease, and compensation can be availed for contracting the disease in another eight. Unions have played a key role in ensuring these outcomes and they show the way for unions in other countries. The pressure for the waiver is building up. Trade unions have contributed to it and can play a key role in tilting the balance towards an understanding of health, vaccines, medicines, and protective equipment, as public goods.

We equally have to demand enhanced investment in public health and care systems to ensure universal health care. Health care and other frontline workers who have borne the brunt of the pandemic response must be protected. Governments need to improve health employment and working conditions now. This has to be part of building a new approach to the global economy and governance, in which people come first before profit.

As the PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli pointed these out in the PSI priorities and perspectives on the Covid-19 emergency, we must “ensure that the current suffering is not in vain and use the warnings we now have to convince people we must build a radical new economy and develop policies that put people and the planet over profit.”

*This text was written in collaboration with PSI Trade Justice Campaigner Susana Barria