Health

Pope backs Biden’s call for Covid vaccine intellectual property waiver

Vatican City, May 8 (EFE).- Pope Francis has backed United States President Joe Biden’s proposal to temporarily waive patents on intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines.

The head of the Catholic Church made the remarks in his native Spanish in a video message that is to be played during a concert in Los Angeles, part of the Vax Live campaign to ensure equitable vaccine distribution.

In the video, Francis called for “a spirit of justice that mobilizes us to ensure universal access to the vaccine and the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights.”

“A variant of this virus is closed nationalism, which impedes, for example, an internationalism of vaccines” he continued.

“Another variant is when we put the laws of the market or intellectual property over the laws of love and the health of humanity.”

He added: “Another variant is when we create a sick economy, which allows a very rich few, a very rich few, to own more than the rest of humanity.”

The Vax Live concert, organized by the NGO Global Citizen, will be presented by US singer Selena Gomez and attended by famous personalities such as Biden and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

It is to feature performances by Jennifer Lopez, Eddie Vedder, Foo Fighters and J. Balvin.  EFE

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