So waive the intellectual property rights to COVID vaccines, already!
Let's not get tripped up by TRIPS!
The pandemic continues to rage throughout the world.
Fabulously successful vaccines have been developed.
Manufacture of them has been constricted. So distribution has been restricted.
Why?
Intellectual property (IP) rights, dontcha know.
The World Trade Organization (WTO), through its TRIPS Council (Council for Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), has to accede to waivers of IP rights.
The United States, to its credit, supports a TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccines.
Other countries, plus certain interest groups, are – to be polite – reticent.
Billions of people are at risk.
Over 234 million people throughout the world have fallen ill. (1)
(Compare that to the total population of the United States: almost 333 million.) (2)
Nearly 4.8 million people are thought to have died worldwide. (1)
(The entire population of the state of Alabama is 4.9 million.) (3)
In my research, I have found no particularly good reason to delay a TRIPS waiver.
So let’s not get tripped up by TRIPS!
Here are links to background pieces:
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/trips_and_covid19_e.htm
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/wto-trips-waiver-for-covid-19-vaccines
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/coronavirus/a-covid-19-vaccine-ip-waiver-wont-kill-pharma-innovation
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/wto-chief-says-trade-must-do-more-address-devastating-vaccine-inequity-2021-09-28/
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/09/22/un-covid-19-summit-un-falls-short
Sources:
(1) https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
(2) https://www.census.gov/popclock/
(3) https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/us-states-by-population.html