Supply Scarce Abroad, Demand Down At Home: Vaccine Access Is Starkly Unequal

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🗓️ 6 May 2021

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Summary

Vaccine demand is beginning to slide in the U.S., but in other parts of the world, the pandemic is devastating countries where vaccines are more scarce. India is one of those countries. There only 2% of the population is fully immunized.

There's an argument that waiving intellectual property rights could boost global vaccine production, and this week the Biden administration came out in support of that idea. Mustaqeem de Gama, South Africa's counsellor at the World Trade Organization, tells NPR that U.S. support is a "game changer."

Meanwhile, in some parts of the U.S., it's getting harder to find enough arms for vaccine doses. Katia Riddle reports from Oregon.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Most of the global vaccine supply has gone to a handful of rich countries, and at the
0:05.8	current pace, many other people around the world won't get a shot for years.
0:10.3	That's why progressive Democrats and public health advocates had been pressuring the Biden
0:14.4	administration to do something.
0:17.0	And it finally did on Wednesday.
0:19.1	We have some breaking news now on the global vaccination front, U.S. Trade Representative.
0:23.2	Catherine Ty just announced that the Biden administration now supports waving intellectual
0:28.5	property protections on COVID-19 vaccines.
0:31.5	In supporting a waiver of intellectual property rights for vaccines, the Biden administration
0:36.2	is opening the door for cheaper, generic versions to be made by other countries.
0:42.1	And that's something pharmaceutical giants staunchly oppose.
0:45.5	Well, the U.S. position is really, really important.
0:48.8	It's a game changer.
0:50.3	Moose to Kim Degama is the World Trade Organization Counselor for South Africa, one of the many
0:56.1	nations that support a waiver for vaccine patents.
0:59.8	Now, others, the UK, Australia, and EU countries do not.
1:05.2	The WTO has a say on vaccine patent rights under a decades-old international agreement.
1:10.5	And to waive those rights, there has to be a consensus among its roughly 160 members.
1:17.3	And an agreement could take months.
1:19.8	But U.S. support for the idea.
1:21.9	Well, it's a big step.
1:23.9	Every day we spend arguing about intellectual property, people are dying.
	...

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