Petitions Urge US to Lead in Geneva on COVID-19 IP Waiver
Nonprofits, such as Amnesty International, Public Citizen, Doctors Without Borders, Oxfam and Greenpeace, joined by the majority of House Democrats and 10 senators, are urging the Biden administration to push for an intellectual property waiver in the World Trade Organization for "COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests."
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"A meaningful WTO waiver that can facilitate the necessary scale-up in production will only be agreed if the Biden administration applies maximum diplomatic and political pressure to make it happen," the coalition says. Vaccine producers are behind their 2021 production pledges, Public Citizen says, and because countries are buying up supplies for boosters and child vaccination, only 7% of people in low-income countries have even received one shot of the two-shot course of vaccines.
At a press conference that announced 3 million people are calling for the waiver, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said, "Failure to enact a waiver will only prolong the pandemic, leading to more death, illness, economic hardship and social and political disruption around the world. It is long past time for the president to deliver on his historic support for this waiver. We will only be successful if the president, working with [U.S. Trade Representative] Katherine Tai, uses the opportunity to get the WTO waiver done, which will facilitate broad tech transfer, speed up COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments by expanding global production." DeLauro is chair of the House Appropriations Committee.