Patent games

READING deeper into the wire service stories about the covid-19 patent dust-up, we get these beauties:

“Waiving patents won’t speed the manufacture of vaccines. The proposal angered the developers who delivered lifesaving doses in record time. But Biden’s decision to support waiving intellectual-property rights for coronavirus shots had a broader purpose: to broadcast his administration’s commitment to global leadership . . . . ”

“In the best case, officials acknowledge it will take at least a year for any additional vaccines to be produced because of the change. With key European leaders adamantly opposed to the waivers, securing the required consensus at the World Trade Organization may never happen . . . . ”

“The specialized production, particularly of the cutting-edge mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, would take even longer. Moreover, the matter could become less pressing if vaccine manufacturers can produce enough to satisfy international demand . . . . ”

“To Biden, White House officials said, that’s largely beside the point, as officials cast the decision as indicative of the president’s efforts to return the U.S. to the position of leadership after four years of unilateralism and protectionism under former President Donald Trump.”

So let’s see if we have this right: The Biden administration proposes to run to the left of Europe, give away somebody else’s private property, knowing it will take a year or longer if the plan actually is implemented, which it probably won’t be, and this’ll all probably be moot anyway as more vaccines are produced in regular order, but the administration is sticking to its guns to show President Biden is going to “lead” in a way that Donald Trump did not.

Hold on to your hats. This is going to be a bumpy ride.