The former British prime minister Gordon Brown is one of 130 people who signed a letter lambasting wealthy countries for their approach to the Covid-19 epidemic.

The open letter was published on Friday and warned of the dangers of self-defeating nationalism, pharmaceutical monopolies and inequality.

According to the letter, an estimated 20 million deaths from Covid-19 had been avoided in the past two years.

On the second anniversary of the declaration by the World Health Organization that the coronaviruses outbreak had become a Pandemic, a letter was sent by the People's Vaccine Alliance.

Former and current leaders of 40 countries, including the former president of Malawi Joyce Banda and the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, are among the others.

The Pandemic is not over in Africa or across the world. Thousands of avoidable deaths are being seen each day.

The letter urges world leaders to fund the next stages of vaccines, treatment and testing and provide protective equipment for healthcare workers around the globe. The current vaccines may not work against future versions.

The UK, EU and Switzerland were all accused of blocking a waiver on intellectual property rules that would allow the redistribution and scaling-up of the Covid response.

In October 2020, India and South Africa proposed a temporary waiver on WTO rules for intellectual property. More than 100 countries support it, including the US and Australia.

A few pharmaceutical corporations retain the power to dictate vaccine supply distribution and price, the letter added, and have the power to decide who lives and dies. It was up to world leaders to change this situation.

Last year, the letter came after the organization claimed that six pharmaceutical companies that had developed Covid-19 vaccines were to blame for a global human rights crisis because of their refusal to waive intellectual property rights.