Appeal to US President to support temporary waiver of intellectual property rights to COVID vaccines
Mostar, April 15, 2021 - More than 170
former heads of state and government and Nobel laureates have appealed in an
open letter to US President Joseph Biden to support a temporary waiver of
intellectual property rights to COVID-19 vaccines in order to end the pandemic
more quickly.
The letter specifically asks President
Biden to support the proposal of the South African and Indian governments in
the World Trade Organization (WTO) to temporarily waive intellectual property
rights related to vaccines and treatments against COVID-19 because the current
rate of vaccine production would make poorest countries wait at least until
2024 to achieve mass immunization against the disease.
"President Biden has said no one is safe
until everyone is safe, and now the G7 is a great opportunity to show the
global leadership that only the United States can provide," said former
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, alluding to an upcoming meeting of the group
of world's richest countries.
Nobel laureate in economics Joseph Stiglitz
warned that "new virus mutations will continue to take lives and threaten
our connected global economy until everyone, everywhere, has access to a safe
and effective vaccine."
The letter was coordinated by the People’s
Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of about 50 humanitarian and development organizations.
You can see the complete letter and the
list of signatories here.