Leading health experts have conflicting views on whether it is the right move to strip pharmaceutical companies of the intellectual property rights on Covid-19 vaccines. While the World Health Organisation (WHO) welcomed the decision by the US on Wednesday to waive its IP rights - calling it a “watershed moment” - some scientists warn the move could backfire. Dr Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, has pushed back against the global calls, warning it may not be the best way to actually improve vaccine access. In an interview this week Dr Fauci, the head of the US’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he was “agnostic” about the idea of waiving rights as it may not be “the fastest and most efficient way” of getting shots in arms. “If you take too long, people are going to die,” he told the Financial Times. “There are other ways to ramp up vaccine production around the world." With Covax, the WHO-led vaccine-sharing programme, struggling to gain momentum because of vaccine shortages, pleas have been growing to do something about what rights groups term “vaccine apartheid”.