Thread by @AbraarKaran

South Africa & India pushed the WTO to suspend IP rights on #covid19 vaccines.

"Dozens of low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) support the proposal. However, HICs including the UK, the USA, Canada, Norway, and the EU have rejected it outright"

thelancet.com/journals/lance…

2/ " saying that..."the IP system is required to incentivise new inventions of vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments, which might dry up in its absence. They dismiss the claim that IP is a barrier to access, and argue that equitable access can be achieved through..." #covid19

3/ "voluntary licensing, technology transfer arrangements, and the donor-funded COVAX Advance Market Commitment for vaccines."

The current patent system, while incentivizing innovation, doesn't incentivize equity for life-saving medicines/ vaccines. #covid19

4/ This is a problem, especially during a global pandemic. We are not safe until we are all safe.

But even so, our (wealthy country) safety should not be what drives us to care about the safety of our colleagues in other countries. We should do that because we are human.

5/ Some will say this is too idealistic. I understand that developing new vaccines is a huge $$ risk. And those companies that produced these life-saving vaccines certainly deserve to profit. But *excess* profit at the expense of human life is just cruel. #covid19