The Question of U.S. Pharma Patents on Covid Vaccines

[FakeNoose]

(link) https://theintercept.com/2021/04/15/covid-vaccine-patent-ip-poll/

The extremity of Covid-19 vaccine apartheid cannot be overstated. As of mid-February, the United States had acquired enough vaccines for three times its total population, while in 130 countries, not a single vaccine shot had been administered. This is no accident, but the direct and long-predicted result of a vaccine production and access model tied to privatized intellectual property and entrenched medicine monopolies.

The majority of Americans want President Joe Biden to act to end this intolerable vaccine inequality. Sixty percent of U.S. voters said they wanted Biden to endorse a motion at the World Trade Organization that would waive patent barriers and other crucial intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines, according to a new poll from Data for Progress and the Progressive International. This would enable a significant expansion of global production and rollout, while disrupting the extraordinary profiteering of pharmaceutical leviathans in a death-dealing pandemic.

The refusal on the part of major pharmaceutical companies and Western powers to ensure the sharing of vaccine patent and production information has been an immeasurable moral failure, not to mention a most foolish approach to a pandemic in need of a global response. The new poll also makes clear that, for Biden, blocking vaccine sharing is not even a popular position. Seventy-two percent of registered Democrats want the president to remove patent barriers to speed vaccine rollout and reduce costs for less affluent nations.

- more at link -

The question is how much do we have to HAVE before we start sharing with the HAVE-NOTS?

[paleotn]

1. Figured it would eventually come to this.

That the industrialized world would end up with vast oversupply and have to be prodded to share with Sub-Saharan Africa, Central America and all the other poor countries. We have the wealth and resources to create vaccines in crash programs, build vast surpluses and vaccinate all of our population. That was never in question. But how quickly would we share with the less fortunate? I hoped quickly, but figured they'd be left at the end of the line. Sure enough.

[DURHAM D]

2. Hmmmhhh - The Intercept??? nt

[FarPoint]

3. In my opinion....Not just yet folks...

The two Primary covid-19 vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, they are still under emergency approval only by the FDA...this tells me that if we open things up to generic options...there is an extremely high risk of error in development/ manufacturing, use of cheaper compounds...I say...not just yet....I want quality...everyone needs highest quality....greedy budget cutters with generics...they will not rise to the occasion of excellence...

[SWBTATTReg]

4. I thought that I read that indeed, we (the US) is in fact helping Countries in getting the vaccine.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The United States is "very open" to helping other countries procure COVID-19 vaccines and conversations about how to do so are continuing, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday. The United States will have enough COVID-19 vaccine for every adult by the end of May, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. The initial goal had been end of July.

Canada's target is end-September and critics, who complain about the slow vaccine rollout so far, say Trudeau should ask the United States to permit shipments across the border. Trudeau told reporters it was clear from his conversations with Biden that Washington understood the best way to combat COVID-19 was to do so worldwide.
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GENEVA — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has kicked off an appeal to other countries to help inject $2 billion more to the U.N.-backed program to ship coronavirus vaccines to the world’s poorest countries. The United States is co-hosting a pledging and donor conference Thursday, bringing together four presidents, three prime ministers and other dignitaries to help buttress the $6.3 billion already raised for the U.N.-backed COVAX program.

Blinken laid out a goal to raise COVAX’s target of vaccinating 20% of populations in the affected countries to 30%, with the addition of $2 billion in funds. The COVAX effort has been providing millions of vaccine doses to 92 of the world’s poorest countries. “We recognize that as long as COVID is spreading and replicating anywhere, it poses a threat to people everywhere,” Blinken says.

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The US is planning on donating 4 million doses of covid 19 shots to Mexico and Canada...

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So, to be fair the US is doing its share of sharing covid 19 shots to others. The most important point to remember is that Pres. Biden is firstly making sure that we have enough vaccines for the US.

[OnDoutside]

5. That's a silly protest. Moderna and Pfizer would be highly unlikely to sent to the poorest regions

due to the temperature requirements of the drugs. There are other vaccines that are currently being developed that will be far more suitable for that requirement.

And the key point is that it is in the Western world's interest for the entire world to be vaccinated, because the aim is to try eradicate it in the same way smallpox has been eradicated. Fauci and Biden have also stated that they do want to do this asap to reduce the number of variants.