US shows the way forward on patents
"The [United States] Administration believes strongly in intellectual property, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for covid-19 vaccines,". These are the words with which the US ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Katherine Tai, caused a real global earthquake in the fight against the pandemic on Wednesday. Behind the United States, on Thursday, the European Union positioned itself, proving once again that the EU has renounced a role as a global leader and will instead follow in the wake of Biden's United States, who have taken it on without fear of breaking taboos and putting the world population's health above any other consideration.
Mass vaccination on a global scale is the only way to eradicate covid-19, and only with mass production and free access could this be achieved, as advocated by The People's Vaccine Alliance. It is not, therefore, an ideological, or basically ideological, position, but a profoundly realistic one. Pre-pandemic normality, both economic and social, will not arrive until the virus is completely eliminated throughout the planet. Otherwise we will have to be on the lookout for occasional outbreaks with their corresponding closures and travel restrictions.
However, although it is a historic pronouncement, the release of patents will be a long process, since decisions at the WTO are taken by consensus. They will not have immediate effects either, since this is only one of the variables to be taken into account to carry out a successful vaccination process on a global scale. In addition to patents, production and distribution capacity is needed, as the expert Rafael Vilasanjuan warns ARA. Therefore, this gesture of the First World towards the Third World has to be accompanied by a strong package of aid and knowledge transfer. It is very difficult for developing countries to be in a position, for example, to manufacture the Pfizer vaccine, with messenger RNA technology, which is a scientific novelty. But with outside advice and support, countries like Pakistan or Mexico could quickly acquire this capability.
If this pandemic has shown anything, it is that all humans are linked by an invisible thread, and that an outbreak in one corner of China will eventually affect the lives of people living on the other side of the globe. Therefore, the fight against the pandemic must also be global and be approached with maximum solidarity. As Katherine Tai's statement says, "this is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures". The aim must be to make vaccines "a public good", in the words of Emmanuel Macron, without affecting competitiveness or detracting from the extraordinary work of pharmaceutical companies. But the truth is that they have to understand that an asymmetric vaccination will be, at the end of the day, an inefficient vaccination.
