Intellectual property waiver for COVID vaccines should be expanded to include treatments and tests

<https://theconversation.com/intellectual-property-waiver-for-covid-vaccines-should-be-expanded-to-include-treatments-and-tests-194918>

"Global inequities in access to COVID vaccines have turned out to be a
“catastrophic moral failure”, just as the World Health Organization warned they
would in January 2021. Yet it took 20 months of negotiations for members of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) to agree to a limited relaxation of patent rules
for COVID vaccines – a move decried by civil society organisations as too
little, too late.

Treatments and diagnostic tests are also very important in managing the
pandemic, and like vaccines, are very unequally distributed globally.
Unfortunately, negotiations to expand the WTO decision on COVID vaccine patents
to include treatments and tests are in a sorry state. There is little chance of
a decision by the December deadline WTO members set for themselves.

In the meantime, deaths and hospitalisation from COVID continue to place
pressure on health-care systems."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics