A pandemic response lacking moral leadership.

 Post originally published in Health Action International (HAI) page in March 2021

 

In October 2020, eight months after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, India and South Africa submitted a proposal for a temporary waiver on certain articles of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) TRIPS Agreement. This so-called TRIPS waiver would cover patents, industrial designs and copyright among other Intellectual Property (IP) protection elements of COVID-19-related health technologies, including vaccines

Support for the TRIPS waiver has extended through the Global South while wealthier countries remain fiercely opposed to even discussing the merits of the proposal. Source

Rich countries must join the world in supporting the TRIPS waiver to end the pandemic People´s Health Movement.

The idea has since been welcomed and supported by many governments at WTO (57 are now co-sponsors), civil society from across the world, and other stakeholders, such as researchers and economists. Yet it has been met with a mixture of incredulity and hostility from pharma and a small group of countries, who have spared no effort to stifle any debate on the merits of the proposal.