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For @thenation , @suchitrav and I wrote about why the covid-19 vaccine should be a public good, and what the Biden administration can do to make that happen: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/covid-india-astrazeneca-vaccine/
The crisis unfolding in India will have global ramifications. And so it needs a global approach that dismantles existing patent regimes and listens to the concerns and policy redressals recommended by India, South Africa, and other countries facing vaccine scarcities.
The only way to create equitable access is to declare Covid-19 vaccines a global public good and make this an accessible people’s vaccine by breaking the existing patent regimes, mass production of vaccines, and rapid distribution.
In addition to its being the right thing to do, it’s crucial to remember that pharmaceutical giants received vast public investments to develop and produce the vaccines.
There are immediate steps that the Biden administration can take towards this goal.
1. RENEGOTIATE VACCINE CONTRACTS THAT PROHIBIT THE US FROM SHARING SURPLUS VACCINES WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
1. RENEGOTIATE VACCINE CONTRACTS THAT PROHIBIT THE US FROM SHARING SURPLUS VACCINES WITH FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
2. DONATE OR “LOAN” ASTRA-ZENECA, NOVOVAX, AND SANOFI SURPLUS TO COUNTRIES IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN AUTHORIZED FOR USE.
3. PERMANENTLY REMOVE/REPEAL DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT (DPA) EXPORT RESTRICTIONS ON RAW MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF COVID-19 VACCINES ABROAD.
4. WAIVE—AND EVENTUALLY DISMANTLE—WTO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RULES FOR VACCINES.
Dismantling IP protections — on ALL vaccine-related know-how is the most crucial step of them all. The way the protections operate now keep vaccine apartheid in place, and will prolong the pandemic for years to come:
The US government could easily have insisted on the ability to protect people across the globe by sharing vaccines; instead, it prioritized the protection and profits of pharma companies instead.
Now, over 80 percent of shots worldwide have been administered in high-income countries—one shot per second—while only 0.2 percent of doses have been administered in low-income countries.
If there’s one thing we must constantly bear in mind, it is that we are only as safe as the most vulnerable person. This vaccine apartheid that privileges profits over people will continue to cost countless lives and extend the pandemic as the virus mutates.
The death and devastation will have disastrous global ramifications. We need to take steps immediately to make the vaccines available to everyone, everywhere, and free of charge—to treat the Covid vaccine as a global public good. No one is safe unless all of us are vaccinated.
