By Kim Sang-woo
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, highly concerning variants have been identified in many countries, with scientists fearing that some of these new strains may be resistant to the recently produced vaccines.
In February, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that 10 countries had administered 75 percent of the world's available COVID-19 vaccine supply. At that time, more than 130 countries, home to 2.5 billion people, had yet to receive a single dose of any vaccine, rendering their populations vulnerable to the new variants.
High-income countries hope to get close to herd immunity through vaccination in the coming months. But they will still be in danger of the variants evolving in non-vaccinated or inadequately vaccinated countries, which will then make their way across international borders.
Such mutations could pose a major health threat to all countries, as well as disrupt the inter-connected global supply chain, by damaging manufacturing and agriculture in regions still blighted by the virus.
A January study published by the International Chamber of Commerce claims that unequal access to vaccines could cost the global economy as much as $9.2 trillion, with around half of the total loss being in wealthy countries.
To overcome these challenges, the World Health Organization (WHO) set up COVAX, an initiative to coordinate vaccine research and license production in order to guarantee fair and equitable distribution worldwide. To date, however, this effort has fallen desperately short.
As the pandemic rages in the unvaccinated world, vaccine nationalism prevalent in wealthy democracies raises the risk of them losing the soft power race to China and Russia, which have shipped vaccines to over 50 countries, including most of Latin America.
The vaccine donations by Russia and China, in exchange for favorable foreign policy concessions, are strong indications that the vaccine "have-nots" are vulnerable to diplomatic coercion and enticement.
The Western countries, meanwhile, are focused on their own domestic vaccination programs ― although the United States has recently declared its intention to offer vaccine aid to hard hit countries, especially India ― amounting to a total of 60 million doses, in which 20 million will be provided for India.
Despite all the arguments over vaccines in Europe, the most important element has been missed. The shortage of vaccines is not primarily a procurement problem but a production one. And these difficulties arise from the problem of vaccine patents limiting supply. However, a solution is possible through a coordinated global effort.
In the first phase of the pandemic, the relationship between a nation's wealth and its effective response was indirect. While testing capacity has been a problem in many countries, the non-pharmaceutical methods that were key to flattening the curve of the epidemic ― social distancing, mask-wearing, quarantines and contact tracing -- were often used effectively in poor and middle-income countries. Non-pharmaceutical solutions are less effective in the pandemic's new phase, which requires the entire world to be vaccinated urgently.
Governments have poured large amounts of public money into producing COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. government alone, under "Operation Warp Speed," invested $8 billion. The Moderna vaccine has been almost entirely funded by U.S. taxpayers, but it is being sold at a fully commercial price for private profit.
Even though other companies, like AstraZeneca, are charging much less per dose, they still retain their patent rights over supply. Companies' profit-motivated practices mean that the full potential of global production is simply not being realized.
South Africa and India have proposed a temporary suspension of coronavirus patents. Implementing this suspension globally will allow manufacturers all over the world to join in the global effort. The WHO has backed this demand and established the "COVID-19 Technology Access Pool" to share knowledge and resources equitably, enabling a rapid exit from the pandemic.
In a revealing turn of events, it was established in March that the U.S. government has patent license claims over the Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, CureVac, and Pfizer/BioTech vaccines. So, private monopoly control has become less justifiable.
On May 5, the Biden administration announced support for India and South Africa's proposal to waive the intellectual property rules on the COVID-19 vaccines "until widespread vaccination is in place globally." "These extraordinary times and circumstances … call for extraordinary measures," said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, pledging that the U.S. would support the waiver for COVID-19 vaccines in discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Unfortunately, the EU, with Germany in the forefront, has decided to oppose the waiver, arguing that the lack of vaccines is not a problem of patents, but is rather an issue of the ability to manufacture vaccines while maintaining a standard of high-quality, and if the intellectual property rights are lifted, that will have a detrimental effect on global vaccine production.
Since the waiver at the WTO requires a consensus, it is possible that it will either never be implemented, because others continue to object, or negotiations over the actual wording will take so long that it will be irrelevant by the time it's finished.
However, one thing is clear ― neither the EU nor any other global power can defeat a pandemic by thinking in national terms. COVID-19 vaccines are now a central component of the national security of every country in the world ― all the more reason for democracies to demonstrate moral leadership. They need to adopt measures that understand the scale of the global crisis and the courage to do what it takes to overcome the threat. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for all of us.
Kim Sang-woo (swkim54@hotmail.com) is a former lawmaker and currently chairman of the East Asia Cultural Project. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.
 |
In February, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres announced that 10 countries had administered 75 percent of the world's available COVID-19 vaccine supply. At that time, more than 130 countries, home to 2.5 billion people, had yet to receive a single dose of any vaccine, rendering their populations vulnerable to the new variants.
High-income countries hope to get close to herd immunity through vaccination in the coming months. But they will still be in danger of the variants evolving in non-vaccinated or inadequately vaccinated countries, which will then make their way across international borders.
Such mutations could pose a major health threat to all countries, as well as disrupt the inter-connected global supply chain, by damaging manufacturing and agriculture in regions still blighted by the virus.
A January study published by the International Chamber of Commerce claims that unequal access to vaccines could cost the global economy as much as $9.2 trillion, with around half of the total loss being in wealthy countries.
To overcome these challenges, the World Health Organization (WHO) set up COVAX, an initiative to coordinate vaccine research and license production in order to guarantee fair and equitable distribution worldwide. To date, however, this effort has fallen desperately short.
As the pandemic rages in the unvaccinated world, vaccine nationalism prevalent in wealthy democracies raises the risk of them losing the soft power race to China and Russia, which have shipped vaccines to over 50 countries, including most of Latin America.
The vaccine donations by Russia and China, in exchange for favorable foreign policy concessions, are strong indications that the vaccine "have-nots" are vulnerable to diplomatic coercion and enticement.
The Western countries, meanwhile, are focused on their own domestic vaccination programs ― although the United States has recently declared its intention to offer vaccine aid to hard hit countries, especially India ― amounting to a total of 60 million doses, in which 20 million will be provided for India.
Despite all the arguments over vaccines in Europe, the most important element has been missed. The shortage of vaccines is not primarily a procurement problem but a production one. And these difficulties arise from the problem of vaccine patents limiting supply. However, a solution is possible through a coordinated global effort.
In the first phase of the pandemic, the relationship between a nation's wealth and its effective response was indirect. While testing capacity has been a problem in many countries, the non-pharmaceutical methods that were key to flattening the curve of the epidemic ― social distancing, mask-wearing, quarantines and contact tracing -- were often used effectively in poor and middle-income countries. Non-pharmaceutical solutions are less effective in the pandemic's new phase, which requires the entire world to be vaccinated urgently.
Governments have poured large amounts of public money into producing COVID-19 vaccines. The U.S. government alone, under "Operation Warp Speed," invested $8 billion. The Moderna vaccine has been almost entirely funded by U.S. taxpayers, but it is being sold at a fully commercial price for private profit.
Even though other companies, like AstraZeneca, are charging much less per dose, they still retain their patent rights over supply. Companies' profit-motivated practices mean that the full potential of global production is simply not being realized.
South Africa and India have proposed a temporary suspension of coronavirus patents. Implementing this suspension globally will allow manufacturers all over the world to join in the global effort. The WHO has backed this demand and established the "COVID-19 Technology Access Pool" to share knowledge and resources equitably, enabling a rapid exit from the pandemic.
In a revealing turn of events, it was established in March that the U.S. government has patent license claims over the Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Novavax, CureVac, and Pfizer/BioTech vaccines. So, private monopoly control has become less justifiable.
On May 5, the Biden administration announced support for India and South Africa's proposal to waive the intellectual property rules on the COVID-19 vaccines "until widespread vaccination is in place globally." "These extraordinary times and circumstances … call for extraordinary measures," said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, pledging that the U.S. would support the waiver for COVID-19 vaccines in discussions at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Unfortunately, the EU, with Germany in the forefront, has decided to oppose the waiver, arguing that the lack of vaccines is not a problem of patents, but is rather an issue of the ability to manufacture vaccines while maintaining a standard of high-quality, and if the intellectual property rights are lifted, that will have a detrimental effect on global vaccine production.
Since the waiver at the WTO requires a consensus, it is possible that it will either never be implemented, because others continue to object, or negotiations over the actual wording will take so long that it will be irrelevant by the time it's finished.
However, one thing is clear ― neither the EU nor any other global power can defeat a pandemic by thinking in national terms. COVID-19 vaccines are now a central component of the national security of every country in the world ― all the more reason for democracies to demonstrate moral leadership. They need to adopt measures that understand the scale of the global crisis and the courage to do what it takes to overcome the threat. For whom does the bell toll? It tolls for all of us.
Kim Sang-woo (swkim54@hotmail.com) is a former lawmaker and currently chairman of the East Asia Cultural Project. He is also a member of the board of directors at the Kim Dae-jung Peace Foundation.
![[INTERVIEW] 'Money Heist: Korea' writer feels satisfied to expand series' franchise](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/e264f8d5589442489d72f9494ca3f1c7.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
