It will not be easy to bring the COVID-19 epidemic on its heels until antiretroviral drugs become available worldwide. That is the truth the world should look to.
But at the moment the immunization of many people around the world is still far from being achieved as experts debate over how to increase drug production and equal distribution worldwide.
push to waive COVID-19 vaccine patents
Last week, the United States made headlines when it announced that it would reverse the ban on intellectual property protection in the COVID-19 vaccine technology – a move its proponents say could lift legal barriers and make it easier for many countries, especially low-income, do-and-do . “This is a global health crisis, and the global flood situation of COVID-19 calls for extraordinary measures,” United States Commerce Attorney Katherine Tai said in a statement.
“I think it’s really a metaphor – a good metaphor,” said Lawrence Gostin, a law professor of Health at Georgetown University. “After all the destruction we have done around the world under the previous regime, this is a great way to improve America’s reputation.”
But others – including major pharmaceutical companies – say it is a distraction from the real problems that exist: a global shortage of resources, skilled workers, and other infrastructure needed to make life-saving COVID-19 shots. “There is a difference.
Since the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine late last year, rich countries have been involved in a limited production system by placing large orders in advance – successfully exporting low- and middle-income countries.
About half of the 1.3 billion vaccines distributed worldwide have so far been made in the United States and China alone. The United States has donated at least one gun to more than 45 percent of the country’s population, according to a University of Oxford database. Currently, very small numbers are kept in other parts of the world. Brazil and India – two countries with severe COVID-19 floods and a horrific death toll – only 15 percent and 10 percent of their population are, at least, vaccinated. This is the African continent’s figure of 1 percent, according to data at Oxford.
“The gap is very painful between rich and poor,” World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday. Coovax, the world’s largest drug distribution company, has sent less than a quarter of its revenue to date, reports The New York Times. And researchers have predicted that it could take years to reach levels close to the defense force in low-income countries. “We have the technology to save the world, and we do not participate in it. “We collect them,” said Gostin. It is completely unforgivable, morally. ”
The virus will continue to spread and spread wherever it is left uncontrolled, experts say, giving it ample opportunity to translate into infectious, deadly, or vaccine-resistant themes.
In response, a union of about 100 countries and foreign groups called on members of the World Trade Organization for months to agree to suspend IP protection against the COVID-19 vaccine. Without extensive intervention, they say, copyright owners may refuse to license their technology to other companies. Under the proposal (which can take weeks or months to negotiate and complete) independent producers will be allowed to produce and distribute that is not protected by copyright.
When done, IP configuration can be history. Previous public health problems have led to a variety of legal strategies aimed at speeding up the rapid production and widespread adoption of illicit drugs, drugs and synthetic drugs.
During World War II, the US government forced industry and academics to work together to increase the production of military penicillin, Dutfield said. “They put a lot of pressure on industry and universities to combine all their knowledge,” he said. “It worked very well. The United States has lost most of its revenue in six months. ”
A few decades later, Swedish carmaker Volvo decided to open up his patent on the novel, a three-point seat belt open to rivals to spread this life-saving design. And at the beginning of the 21st century, many countries were able to obtain patent-based HIV / AIDS treatment licenses to speed up the global epidemic.
Read Also: Millennium Reveals the Microbiomes of Ancient Peoples
But there is a clear difference between the current problem and the current one, says Michael Merson, a research professor at the NYU School of Global Public Health and a professor of global health at Duke University. “There was a quick ability to make these drugs – not so with these vaccines,” he says. “It’s not the same. I would love it if it were. ”
Critics of the IP release say it will not address any of the problems that apply to the root of the COVID-19 vaccine deficit and inequality. Even if you do not have a patent, it may take a year or more to set up new factories, train skilled workers, obtain resources, and establish distribution centers. If stopping is like sharing a vaccine recipe,
