Health Affairs January 26, 2022
We are learning more every day about the origins of the omicron variant but, considering the lack of global collaboration to end the pandemic, a new variant was all but guaranteed. Wealthy countries in the Global North have created a system of vaccine apartheid. Because the development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines have received significant taxpayer funding in both the United States and European Union, political leaders can demand that the vaccines be produced generically or through fair-pricing agreements. And even where taxpayer dollars were not used, governments can waive patents under conditions of national and international emergencies.
Deploying these steps takes political courage from leaders in the world’s richest countries—politicians who must stand up to the pharmaceutical industry and their...
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