It’s Time for the U.S. to Step Up and Help Get the World Vaccinated
Why an intellectual property waiver isn’t the solution
When the Biden administration, in a surprise reversal, announced this week that it would support the waiver of intellectual property rights connected to Covid-19 vaccines, the announcement was hailed as a huge step in the fight to contain the global Covid pandemic, with the head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) calling it a “monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19.”
For many, it sparked hopes that vaccine manufacturers around the world would soon be able to begin making copies of the various Covid vaccines, expanding supply at a time when the vast majority of the world’s population remains unvaccinated and the virus is ravaging countries like India and Brazil.
Yet while Biden’s support for the intellectual property waiver was symbolically important, it’s unlikely to have any material impact on the course of the pandemic over the rest of the year and will be of no use to India as it tries to bring its current outbreak under control. What the world needs instead is a strategy that will vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. And the simplest, most obvious way to do that is for the world’s wealthiest countries to step up and foot the bill for vaccination on a…
