Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Public Citizen and 11 other groups said in a letter to Biden that an urgent waiver of vaccine ownership is urgently needed to combat the pandemic, noting that less than 7% of the population of low-income countries received the first dose of vaccines.
More than 5.4 million people have died due to the Covid-19 epidemic, caused by the Corona virus, around the world since the first cases were detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
Contrary to a previous position of the United States, Biden expressed his support for waiving intellectual property rights last May, in a move that surprised some allies, but without achieving any significant progress since then, according to Reuters.
There is still opposition in the European Union, Britain and Switzerland to this step, arguing that such concessions may undermine years of investment and research efforts.
The White House last month called on all WTO members to support the temporary waiver as WTO Director-General Ngozi Okongo-Iweala presses for an agreement at the WTO ministerial conference in Geneva from November 30 to December 3. next.
In their letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the rights groups said they were “deeply disappointed” by the Biden administration’s failure to do more to secure agreement on the waiver text since Biden’s strong statement in May.
The groups urged Biden to intensify his personal efforts and lead the world to a serious agreement on the issue.
She said doing so would help end the pandemic and restore the United States’ standing around the world.
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