The world had the chance to truly\u00a0treat COVID-19 as a common problem and respond to it in an equitable and just manner.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians, mainstream media and\u00a0celebrities in the West declaring the disease the \u201cgreat equalizer\u201d – implying that this novel\u00a0virus would affect everyone regardless of their position, wealth, race, or power.<\/p>\n
However, as the\u00a0pandemic progressed, it became abundantly clear that this was not the case. Instead, the development and distribution of several effective vaccines revealed drastically increasing\u00a0disparities among socially disadvantaged groups, as was to be expected, higher income countries (HIC) managed to procure more doses than\u00a0they required while lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) struggled to get any.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCould you patent the sun?\u201d – Jonas Salk: Patent waivers for COVID-19 vaccines are <\/em>needed to achieve global vaccine equity and sustainable recovery.<\/em><\/p>\n Eventually\u00a0we arrived at a point where there are fourth doses being offered in HICs while there are certain\u00a0populations in LMICs who have not received their first doses. This situation was described by\u00a0the head of the World Health Organization as a \u201cvaccine apartheid\u201d. Hoarding of vaccines by\u00a0HICs in order to protect their population left people in lower resource countries vulnerable to the\u00a0adverse effects of COVID-19, especially those in lower socioeconomic strata and marginalized\u00a0\u00a0groups. At the end of 2021, 50% of the global population had been vaccinated, however there\u00a0were great disparities with 75% of people in HICs vaccinated compared to 2% in LMICs.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the idea of an \u201capartheid\u201d with regards to pandemics is not a novel concept. The\u00a0HIV pandemic was exacerbated and prolonged in Africa despite anti-retroviral drugs being\u00a0available for a decade before they were supplied to low-income countries suffering debilitating\u00a0losses from HIV and AIDS.<\/p>\n Yet, it is not impossible to have cooperation and coordinated efforts on a global scale. There are\u00a0examples of vaccines that have effectively eradicated and eliminated diseases that were often\u00a0considered death sentences. The polio vaccine was invented in 1955 by Jonas Salk. In\u00a0response to a question as to the ownership of the vaccine patent, Salk responded saying, \u201cWell,\u00a0the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?\u201d Polio was a global\u00a0disease, affecting children and causing paralysis all over the world. Today, polio has been effectively eliminated\u00a0from most countries.\u00a0[Question: How was the polio medication manufactured and distributed?]<\/p>\n This example\u00a0seems very apt in the current climate. The rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines is a\u00a0testament to the global scientific community\u2019s technical advancement.<\/p>\n However, the world must also resolve the moral and ethical quandaries that have arisen.The Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, signed by all\u00a0countries in the World Trade Organization (WTO), was promoted by powerful nations like the\u00a0United States and the pharmaceutical industries to implement protections for intellectual property\u00a0and patents. Before this agreement, many countries were able to ignore patents for\u00a0pharmaceutical products.\u00a0But, with the TRIPS agreement in place, many countries, including LMICs,\u00a0that had the capabilities were forbidden to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n A few\u00a0months into the pandemic, India and South Africa petitioned the WTO for a waiver on patent\u00a0rights to manufacture the most effective vaccines. It wasn\u2019t until 2022 that The WTO agreed to a limited version of the proposal – it granted use of patented\u00a0technology only for vaccines and for a period of 5 years. Over 200\u00a0humanitarian groups recommended that WTO trade ministers not accept the altered TRIPS waiver draft.<\/p>\n Some authorities argue that vaccines should be considered\u00a0public goods, among them the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Given\u00a0that an estimated 100 billion dollars of public funding went into vaccine development and that<\/p>\n the economic challenges that the pandemic has caused and continues to exacerbate, advocates argue that it is more economically prudent to waive patent rights, even without the consideration of the health of the global population.<\/p>\n On a simple, moral standpoint, patents for\u00a0vaccines pose a threat to the health of people globally. In the face of a global pandemic where\u00a0cooperation was required on an unprecedented scale, global leaders not only failed to ensure\u00a0access to vaccines, but instead exacerbated the many health and economic disparities that\u00a0exist between HICs and LMICs.<\/p>\n Waiving the patent rights to not just vaccines but the\u00a0surrounding technology and tools is a must, both from a moral and economic standpoint, to\u00a0bring justice and end the vaccine apartheid.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, if a remedy is found, it may be too little, too late, with powerful countries, particularly the United States, pushing its own political and economic agenda rather than taking a moral stand for the sake of humanity. It is not hyperbole to say that political grandstanding and protection of economic interests have caused prolongation of the pandemic, given rise to more virulent strains, and caused great harm to all people, especially the most vulnerable populations, marginalized and socially disadvantaged groups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The world had the chance to truly\u00a0treat COVID-19 as a common problem and respond to it in an equitable and just manner. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, politicians, mainstream media and\u00a0celebrities in the West declaring the disease the \u201cgreat equalizer\u201d – implying that this novel\u00a0virus would affect everyone regardless of their position, wealth, race, or power. However, as the\u00a0pandemic progressed, it became abundantly clear that this was not the case. Instead, the development and distribution of several effective…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1203,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[30,116,74,95,108,54,55,71,92,113,109,28,20],"media_type_reference":[],"class_list":["post-1190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medical-apartheid","tag-apartheid","tag-counterfeit-medicines","tag-decolonization","tag-economic-sanctions","tag-geopolitical","tag-global-health-justice","tag-health-inequities","tag-healthcare-workplace-violence","tag-human-rights-violations","tag-phantom-aid","tag-public-health","tag-structural-violence","tag-vaccine-apartheid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1190"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1190\/revisions\/1200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1190"},{"taxonomy":"media_type_reference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/globalhealthjustice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type_reference?post=1190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}