Surprisin' Biden

I don't think this has ever happened to me before, but today I'm going to have to correct something I wrote yesterday. It seems that Joe Biden has now kept his word regarding one of his campaign promises...

Writing these posts takes anything between a half hour and three hours each night; yesterday was one of the faster ones. But only a minutes after posting yesterday's post news broke that Joe Biden now supports a waiver on vaccine patents, which could increase covid-19 vaccine production around the world. This, I must say, is a stunning reversal, because Biden has close personal financial ties to Big Pharma. Much of the donor money comes from so called PAC's which most often don't disclose where the money comes from, but in the last election cycle he got significant backing from the healthcare industry, including manufacturers, hospitals and health professionals.

India and Africa first proposed the plan to (temporarily) lift patent protection for coronavirus vaccines, as they are most severely hit by the shortage. Biden said himself, as you can see in the video I linked in yesterday's post, that lifting said patent protection would be the humanitarian thing to do, and yesterday he finally put his money where his mouth is. There will be a discussion among WTO member states next month where a panel on intellectual property will be present. Let's hope that after discussing this for almost six months it's not too late; there's a chance that the virus will mutate into a vaccine-resistant strain in the meantime.

You can read more of the particulars in this article: Covid: US backs waiver on vaccine patents to boost supply. Pharmaceutical companies are opposed to this proposal, of course, and warn that the waiver could stifle innovation, and they also voice concern over the safety and quality of vaccines if they're produced in other countries:

But pharmaceutical companies have voiced their opposition to a waiver, insisting that patents are not the primary obstacle, and cautioned that the move could stifle innovation.

The head of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, Thomas Cueni, told the BBC's Today programme that technology transfer should not be enforced.

"I'm deeply concerned if you hand this over and allow companies to try to get it done the right way, safe and high quality, you could compromise the quality and safety of vaccines which we see now and it would be disruptive."
_{source: BBC}

I believe they're most afraid of the precedent this would set though. If this move is successful, it will show the sheer inhumanity of putting profits before lifes, and that this should in fact be reversed; lifes before profits. Linked below is the video I saw minutes after posting yesterday's post. Let me close by saying that this does not yet change the general message from that post; it's still lyin' Biden as far as I'm concerned, but this was a welcome surprise in any case.

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