President Joe Biden seems to be doing the right thing. Progressive’s fight to #FreeTheVaccine may be realized. This could mitigate COVID-19 worldwide.
#FreeTheVaccine may be realized
Most Progressives were receiving messages through the grapevine that was disturbing earlier this week. Many activists believed that President Biden would not allow the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO) proposed by India and South Africa.
Well here is some welcome news reported at Common Dreams.
In the face of mounting international pressure, the Biden administration on Wednesday announced support for waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines—which campaigners welcomed as “a transformative, hopeful event” that has the potential to save lives around the world, especially in the Global South.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the move as activists gathered in Washington, D.C. for a Rally for a People’s Vaccine urging President Joe Biden to back a Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver at the World Trade Organization (WTO) proposed by India and South Africa.
Members of the WTO met earlier Wednesday to continue discussions about waiving intellectual property protections for much-needed vaccines. Biden’s support for the waiver is a major policy shift; up until now, the U.S. government was a key opponent of the proposal, introduced when his predecessor was still in office.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Tai said in a statement. “The administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines.”
Tai added that the Biden administration will engage in negotiations at the WTO that “will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved” while emphasizing that the ultimate “aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.”
It is shameful that we have an economic system that we claim is efficient that is unable to adjust quickly to the survival of the world and its own survival. One more example illustrates that we need an economic system whose sole existent is not to enrich the chosen few.