Vaccine Patent Rights Targeted By White House, WTO, Brazil
Sen. Bernie Sanders said the matter is a “moral” responsibility for the U.S. to waive key covid patents. Brazil’s senate, meanwhile, passed a bill allowing a temporary ban on patents for medications that could be used to fight the virus.
AP:
US To Launch Trade Talks On COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution
The U.S. top trade negotiator will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed worldwide, two White House officials said Sunday. The White House has been under pressure from lawmakers at home and governments abroad to join an effort to waive patent rules for the vaccines so that poorer countries can begin to produce their own generic versions of the shots to vaccinate their populations. (Superville, 5/2)
The Week:
Sanders: Waiving COVID-19 Vaccine Patents Both Practical And ‘Moral’ Responsibility For U.S.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday said it’s not only a “moral responsibility” for the United States to help vaccinate the rest of the world — including India which is experiencing a devastating surge — against COVID-19. It’s “also in our own self-interest,” Sanders argued, because otherwise “this pandemic … is going to come back and bite us at…