US moves won’t solve vaccine access problem for poor soon: experts

The United States is trying to position itself as a global leader in Covid-19 vaccine access with a sweeping policy shift on intellectual property rules and plans to send a tranche of doses overseas. But experts say it is hard to know when US action will have a significant impact on what poorer countries need now – supplies.

Export delays from crisis-stricken India have hit a global distribution programme, and wealthy countries have bought up supplies or, like America, are vaccinating their own people before sending doses abroad. That has left many countries even more dependent on China to take up the role of major global supplier.

On Wednesday the US veered sharply from its decades-old position on IP rights, voicing support for a waiver of protections for Covid-19 vaccines “in service of ending the pandemic”.

The move is a significant boost for a seven-month old proposal put forward at the World Trade Organization by South Africa and India and backed by more than 100 countries. They want a temporary waiver of protections on all medical products to fight Covid-19 in a bid to ramp up production.

Whether even a more narrow waiver of protections just on Covid-19 vaccines could make it through the WTO remains uncertain, with Germany on Thursday rejecting the US proposal.