Vaccine Equity Coverage Underplays Barrier of Patents

While Western countries have largely lifted Covid restrictions and are attempting to put the pandemic behind them, countries in the Global South, where vaccines and treatments are still often hard to come by (e.g., just 11% of the African continent has been vaccinated against Covid-19), have no such privilege. But despite US media’s occasionally stated concern with vaccine equity, the role of pharmaceutical companies in perpetuating this gap is rarely mentioned. 

Covax—the vaccine alliance of non-governmental organizations—has established itself as a mainstay of global vaccination efforts. Wealthy nations that have contributed to this...