Crux features Eric LeCompte on President Biden's support to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Read an excerpt below, and click here for the full story.

Catholics debate Biden’s waiver of property rights for vaccines

By John Lavenburg

In conversations with Crux, officials from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Jubilee USA Network touted waiving IP protections on the vaccines – copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets –  as an essential step towards ending the pandemic.

“What we’re saying in this instance is that this is a disease that’s ravaging the entire globe,” said Emily Wei, director of policy for CRS. “We’re not going to eradicate it until everyone is vaccinated and you reach that herd immunity.”

CRS estimates that reaching herd immunity will take an estimated 11 billion doses to vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s population (assuming two doses are given per person).

Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA NETWORK also acknowledged the point that these vaccines are essential for stopping mutations and variants “that could re-infect people in the north if the developing world doesn’t get access to vaccines.” But, he also noted there’s a great global economic impact to not helping these countries get back on their feet.

 

Read the full article here.