WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public health advocates held “unhappy birthday” protests this week marking the one year since President Joe Biden announced his support for a waiver of intellectual property barriers stifling global production of COVID medicines and urged him to fulfill this commitment and expand vaccine access abroad.
In New York, Dallas, Austin, Seattle, and San Francisco, Trade Justice Education Fund and others held rallies featuring unhappy birthday cakes, party favors, toasts and birthday-candlelight vigils, and underscored that a watered-down waiver alternative pushed by the European Union would not increase vaccine access abroad.
“One year since the U.S.’s commitment, the world is no closer to the intellectual property waiver needed to expand global access to COVID vaccines, tests and treatments,” said Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of the Trade Justice Education Fund. “President Biden’s leadership at the Global Vaccine Summit and the upcoming World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial is desperately needed to ensure pharmaceutical monopoly rules do not continue to stem access to COVID medicines in countries that need them the most.”
The WTO this week officially introduced an alternative waiver text, widely condemned by dozens of international public health and civil society groups for its limited scope and eligibility. The waiver question is expected to be debated heavily at the upcoming WTO ministerial in June.
Also Wednesday, activists in Washington D.C. held a candlelight vigil in front of the White House and released a video marking the anniversary.
The protests and alternative waiver come ahead of President Biden’s Global Vaccine Summit on May 12, where 83 groups have urged the president to finally fulfill this pledge to expand access to COVID medicines.