America should share vaccine with the world

As more Americans roll up their sleeves for a potentially life-saving vaccination, we are called by moral imperative and social justice concern to reflect on the reality that countries without the Western world’s economic capital are being left behind.

A New York Times story tells the grim tale: Residents of wealthy and middle-income countries have received about 90% of the nearly 400 million vaccines that have been delivered. Poor countries could wait for years to see their citizens vaccinated.

There is a choice to be made, and the U.S. has outsize power in the deliberation. A patent is pending on a 5-year-old invention that is at the center of several COVID19 vaccines, and the government will control the patent. It could be used to pressure drug companies into producing the vaccines and expanding access to countries in need.

America must respond to this crisis.

The unparalleled success in developing the vaccines that now are being distributed came partly at the incentive of massive public funding from the U.S., Britain and the European Union.

This success, hailed as a monumental triumph of science and medicine, will not deserve our national pride if we do not share the success with those who are less fortunate.

Americans should reach out to their federal leaders and ask that vaccines be treated as “global public goods.” The U.S. should usher to approval a proposal at the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines and treatment. Medical innovation is a human accomplishment that must be shared, for the good of humanity. All of humanity.