Members of Congress Applaud Biden Administrations Backing WTO TRIPS Waiver
“Accelerating the production and distribution of life-saving vaccines across the globe is both a moral imperative and an urgent necessity to crush the virus pandemic and prevent the spread of more virulent coronavirus variants. We cannot be fully safe from the virus anywhere until we defeat it everywhere.” [Read Full Statement]
“The TRIPS waiver will allow sharing of the intellectual property required for vaccine manufacturing to get underway immediately, and we applaud the Biden Administration’s support of it in the WTO. This is the right thing to do, and a moment to make every American proud. We would like to thank President Biden for supporting a temporary WTO TRIPS waiver to allow greater access to COVID-19 vaccines everywhere. A pandemic is not the time to fuss over intellectual property rights; it is a time to come together and crush the virus around the world. Thank you to Ambassador Katherine Tai for advocating for the U.S. leadership in this matter.” [Read Full Statement]
“Now is the time to build international cooperation and solidarity in ways we have never seen before, including using the full force of U.S. membership in multilateral institutions, as the Biden Administration has just demonstrated at the WTO in such an historic way. It is clearer than ever that the fate of our own health and safety in the United States is inextricably connected to the wellbeing and protection of the most vulnerable among us worldwide.” [Read Full Statement]
“With this waiver, we can share vaccine recipes, largely developed with taxpayer dollars, while assuring reasonable royalties to American manufacturers. The best way to end the deadly global vaccine shortage is to enable more manufacturers to make vaccines.” [Read Full Statement]
“We would like to thank President Biden for supporting a temporary WTO TRIPS waiver to allow greater access to COVID-19 vaccines everywhere. A pandemic is not the time to fuss over intellectual property rights; it is a time to come together and crush the virus around the world. Thank you to Ambassador Katherine Tai for advocating for the U.S. leadership in this matter.” [Read Full Statement]
1) Let’s be clear—this debate was never about quality control over manufacturing vaccines. It was about money & greed. I was trolled repeatedly by people in my own party for calling on Biden to waive this.
Thank you @POTUS for putting life & dignity over very powerful interests.
2) Thank you to everyone who joined efforts to push for this policy and bridge the vaccine divide.
Glad that the United States is taking this necessary step—this pandemic will not end until we help the world end it.
3) “This is one of the key moral issues of our time,” said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California. “To deny other countries the opportunity to make their own vaccines is just cruel.”
“As a world leader, we must lead the charge in making sure everyone has equal access to the vaccine. That is the promise President Biden ran on, and I am thrilled he has lived up to that promise. Now is incumbent on all of us to make sure the rest of the World Trade Organization follows suit. This deadly virus does not respect borders. Until all of us are safe from this virus, no one is.”
“I’m grateful to the Biden administration for their continued efforts to ensure the global community has access to #COVID19 vaccines and lifesaving treatments. The US has been playing a critical role in this effort…
and we must continue to do everything we can to end the crisis in India and other countries and protect people from infection and the deadly impact of #COVID19. Our work as a nation is not over until the pandemic has been stopped in all corners of the world.’
“An intellectual property waiver is an important step to enable other countries to manufacture vaccines, ramp up global vaccine supply, and defeat #COVID19.
Waiving IP protections alone isn’t enough to make vaccines available around the world. The U.S. must work with other countries to expand their own manufacturing capabilities, continue to share more of our own vaccines, and support international vaccine initiatives like COVAX.
#COVID19 doesn’t stop at our borders – it is both a moral obligation and in the best interest of U.S. public health for the U.S. to do more to combat the pandemic around the world.”
Last week I joined colleagues from across the country to ask the Biden Administration to waive IP protections for the COVID vaccine. And today, they announced they’ll be working with the WTO to do just that.
I remember how much excitement and optimism I felt when I watched the very first Pfizer vaccines leave Portage in December. Now, we need to make sure that these life-saving vaccines are available to people all over the world.
The US should be helping to lead the world out of this pandemic, and today’s decision is a big step in that direction.
“I applaud @AmbassadorTai and the Biden Administration’s support of a temporary WTO waiver to allow the global manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines. This is something I urged the Administration to do because it will significantly ramp up production. #FreeTheVaccine”