The Biden administration proposed on Wednesday that the vaccination patent be expanded worldwide to bridge gap between rich and poor nations who need this vaccine.
Now, there are 48 million Americans who are fully vaccinated, while other nations are struggling, and could potentially take years before these countries receive any doses of these vaccines.
The Biden Administration and US trade representative Katherine Tai have agreed to work alongside the WTO and lift the patent rules. “The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”
At the rate of the vaccine roll out the rich countries are the ones that are surviving, and are getting further away from the pandemic and closer to resuming normal life. When it comes to the poorer countries, they have the possibility to continuously be affected by the virus, including the many variants being discovered.
Right now America is the most stable country when it comes to COVID-19 and its variants, but Biden and Tai have agreed that the world itself needs to get back on its feet and they hope to help with vaccine roll out, ” As our vaccine supply for the American people is secured, the Administration will continue to ramp up its efforts — working with the private sector and all possible partners — to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution. It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines.”
As this debate between who to help and how to help still hasn’t come to an official conclusion, many people in the Biden administration are on board and as of right now it is up to the big pharmaceutical companies to produce these extra vaccines and the WTO to agree what nations deserve it.