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The Covid Vaccine Patents Need to be Lifted. Now.
Where is the Biden administration, and why aren’t they lifting these patents?
Vaccine distribution has been going relatively smoothly here in the United States, and it’s something that the Biden administration has been very proud of. With many states allowing all adults and anyone over the age of sixteen to get the vaccine with their parents’ permission, the Biden administration has happily been reassuring the American people that we’re essentially seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Today, the Biden administration shared an image of the President with Vice President Harris, both with smiles visible even underneath the masks and a caption that read:
“Our best days still lie ahead”
Except, covid cases around the world are still surging. In fact, they’re hitting record levels. And that’s thanks, in part, to the refusal of the United States and other rich nations to wave the rights and lift patents on the vaccines so that lower income countries can manufacture it themselves. While countries like India and South Africa have implored other nations to lift their patents and 100 other mostly developed countries back them, their proposal continues to be blocked by countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Japan.
