Sarita Santoshini Correspondent
When President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States would support a World Trade Organization emergency waiver of COVID-19 vaccine patents, the decision was about more than “the right thing to do.” For some global experts and analysts, the decision reflects something else as well: Mr. Biden’s vision, sharpened over his first three months in office, of reasserting U.S. global leadership.
The larger message the president is sending with the vaccine waiver, some experts say: The coronavirus pandemic is the latest and most urgent in a list of global challenges that will require a strong and complex multilateral response, and the U.S. intends to reclaim the mantle of leader on these issues.
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The Biden administration has announced it now supports temporarily waiving the intellectual property rights for COVID vaccines, in what the World Trade Organization is calling a “monumental moment.” India and South Africa first proposed the waiver in October, but the United States and other wealthy nations blocked the WTO from even opening negotiations on the proposal. Supporters say the waiver is critically needed to increase the rate of vaccine production for the Global South as COVID-19 rapidly spreads in India, Latin America and other regions where few vaccines are available. Biden’s support for the waiver is “an incredibly pleasant surprise” and “late, but still welcome,” says Achal Prabhala, coordinator of the AccessIBSA project, which campaigns for access to medicines in India, Brazil and South Africa. “The proposal is monumental because what it does is it allows for more vaccines to be man
Last Call for 5.5.21 â A prime-time read of whatâs going down in Florida politics
Last Call â A prime-time read of whatâs going down in Florida politics.
First Shot
Senate President
Wilton Simpson and House Speaker
Chris Sprowls announced Wednesday that the Legislature will convene May 17-21 to consider the proposed new Seminole Compact.
In a memo, Sprowls said House committee meetings would be held May 17-18. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee is set to take up the proposal May 17 and consider it on the chamber floor May 18.
The new compact, which the Governor and Seminole Tribe hammered out last month, would boost state revenues by an estimated $2.5 billion over five years and by $6 billion through 2030.
Achal Prabhala: La fundación Gates presionó a Oxford para privatizar su vacuna lavanguardia.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lavanguardia.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Boston Review
Achal Prabhala is a writer from Bangalore, India
Neo Sinoxolo Musangi is an independent queer feminist whose work-life is in art, academia and creative writing. They are currently working on a monograph tentatively titled
Public Sex: Failure and post|colonial mediocrity in the biographical archive.
Aruni Kashyap is a writer and translator from Assam. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Georgia.
Oris Aigbokhaevbolo won the 2015 All Africa Music Award for Journalism. He has contributed to a range of publications, including the
London Review of Books,
Catapult, the
Chimurenga, the
Guardian.
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is an award-winning writer from Nairobi, Kenya. She is the author of the novels