On November 19, 2021, Amnesty International USA and 14 U.S. civil society organizations wrote to President Biden requesting his personal engagement in delivering a temporary waiver of certain World Trade Organization (WTO) rules so that countries can remove intellectual property barriers that are limiting the supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests necessary to end the pandemic. A meaningful WTO waiver that can facilitate the necessary scale-up in production will only be agreed if the Biden administration applies maximum diplomatic and political pressure ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference beginning on November 30.
| A woman walks past the entrance of a closed vaccination center that was shut due to stock shortage of COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai on July 9, 2021. (Photo: Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images) |