Biden takes a vital step on vaccine patents — but more action is needed
U.S. support for a patent waiver must be coupled with technology transfers, information sharing, and a coordinated global effort to distribute vaccines.
Sam Fraser is a communications associate at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He holds a B.A. in International Relations from Claremont McKenna College. His studies there focused on U.S. foreign policy and Latin America, and he has conducted field research on human rights and transitional justice in Argentina. He has also studied the issue of impunity for U.S. foreign policy officials for his undergraduate thesis entitled “The Catastrophe Artists: Understanding America’s Unaccountable Foreign Policy Elite.”
U.S. support for a patent waiver must be coupled with technology transfers, information sharing, and a coordinated global effort to distribute vaccines.
The administration’s stance on a patent waiver puts Big Pharma profits before human life — and sound foreign policy.
Supporters of a strong U.S.-European relationship should be mindful of the problems with this alliance beyond Trump, which have become more apparent in the context of the global pandemic.
“The fundamental problem with U.S. policy toward Iran has been a ridiculous inflation of Iran’s importance to the United States.”