 So when it comes to his handling of COVID-19, I absolutely think that Joe Biden has done a really good job. I don't agree with him on everything, but I think that him supporting the trip's waiver to make a step towards ending vaccine apartheid, him sending vaccines that are unused here overseas. It's all really important. But if we truly want to end vaccine apartheid and get everyone around the globe vaccinated, we have to put pressure on other countries who are holding everyone back. So we put pressure on Joe Biden, and now we have to put pressure on other countries who are standing in the way of progress. And one of the main offenders here is Germany. So there is a Biden-Merkel summit taking place this week on the 15th, and protesters are showing up to shame German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of her visit to demand that she stop supporting vaccine apartheid. So as Jake Johnson of Common Dreams explains, ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the US later this week, public health campaigners on Tuesday flooded a large banner in front of the White House calling on the European leader to stop blocking global COVID vaccines, a reference to her continued opposition to suspending big pharma-friendly patent protections. Organized by a coalition of US civil society groups, Tuesday's demonstration was the first in a series of actions set to take place ahead of and during Merkel's July 15th meeting with President Joe Biden, who has faced criticism for not doing enough to pressure European allies to support a proposed patent waiver for coronavirus vaccines. Other actions planned this week include a protest at Germany's permanent mission to the United Nations in New York City on Wednesday, a dying outside the White House during Merkel's visit on Thursday, and vigils at German consulates nationwide. While Americans and Western Europeans increasingly have widespread access to COVID vaccination, huge numbers of people around the world aren't expected to have access to a vaccine for years unless global production is dramatically increased, Arthur Stamulus, executive director of the Citizens Trade Campaign, said in a statement. Everyday Chancellor Merkel delays global action on COVID vaccines, costs thousands of lives, and increases the chances of a viral mutation that can evade current vaccines and start the pandemic all over for everyone. The Merkel-Biden summit will not be a success Stamulus added unless Germany agrees to support the trip's waiver and help end the pandemic. So I really like this. They are basically threatening to disrupt the Biden-Merkel summit if she doesn't have a change of heart. And I also think it is important to continue to pressure the Biden administration to put pressure on the United States' allies because this is something that is absolutely crucial if we ever want to see an end to the pandemic. And currently, as it stands now, at the rate that we're heading, this pandemic is never going to be over because as Oxfam International reports, more than a million COVID deaths in four months since G7 leaders failed to break vaccine monopolies at current vaccination rate, low-income countries would be waiting 57 years for everyone to be vaccinated. Now let's just pause for a moment and think about the implications of this if we continue our vaccination at the current rate. The global population wouldn't be fully vaccinated until 2078 at the current rate. By then, I mean, not only will many people alive today be dead, but additionally, how many different mutations that evade existing vaccines will pop up by then. It's unsustainable. Like this rate of vaccinations is incredibly unsustainable and obviously more needs to be done and there needs to be a level of urgency that there hasn't been yet. It's like people around the globe, leaders, they don't realize that this is a global pandemic. You can't just vaccinate wealthy nations and expect it to be over within a couple of years. You have to vaccinate the world because so long as the virus continues to spread, it increases the likelihood that a new mutation will pop up as the article stated that will be more resistant to the vaccines. I just, I don't understand why these people are so dense. I mean, I do understand it, right? It's all about money. It's about big pharma and their control over countries, not just the United States, but European countries as well. But even these big pharmaceutical executives, they have a vested interest as human beings who run these companies to not want to see a pandemic go on forever. But I mean, at the end of the day, financially speaking, that would be beneficial for companies like Pfizer and Moderna and Johnson and Johnson. So even if, as human beings, it makes their lives shittier, well, it increases profits for their companies. So they have no rush whatsoever to vaccinate the global population. And so long as they can keep producing these vaccines, they're going to be doing really well. I mean, a large portion of Pfizer's profits is from the COVID-19 vaccine. So this is incredibly profitable. And it's just, it's unsustainable at this rate. Now, let's get some more details from that Oxfam report. They're citing the People's Vaccine Alliance. So here's what they say about global vaccine disparities, new calculations from the Alliance, which includes Health Justice Initiative, Oxfam and UNAIDS, found that last month, people living in G7 countries were 77 times more likely to be offered a vaccine than those living in the world's poorest countries. Between them, G7 nations were vaccinating at a rate of 4.6 million people a day in May, meaning if this rate continues, everyone living in G7 nations could be fully vaccinated by the 8th of January in 2022. At the current rate, vaccinated 63,000 people a day, it would take low income countries 57 years to reach the same level of protection, unacceptable. So I want to point you to a documentary that Vice put out about a month or so ago. I believe this was published after Joe Biden announced support for the trips waiver. So this talks about how what could be possible in the event we actually allowed other countries to reproduce their own generic versions of the current vaccines that we're using in the United States and in Europe. Take a look. European countries in the United States were able to purchase or pre-purchase tons of vaccine. And so we've got them, but a lot of people in the global south don't. Right, right. I think it's something like 85 countries, the poor countries that won't see a vaccine until 2023. Wow. And this is why there's such a momentum to say, well, if we can get more manufacturers in, more suppliers, we could still, even if they only start producing at the end of this year, could still be that projection. And so to make more available vaccines, the idea is if the intellectual property could be shared, then manufacturers in other parts of the world could just spring up and start making it. Absolutely. So that's one component. Get the barriers out of the way. Get as many barriers out of the way so that we can scale up supply. Now, it may be that only a certain amount of other manufacturers in the global south, for example, could produce these vaccines by themselves. The newer mRNA vaccines may require a little bit more effort, but some that we've spoken to think they can do it alone. And then there are other issues like regulatory issues that they have to get the vaccine approved, the trial data. So the IP is a big part of it. We could get way further down the road if we remove some of those barriers. If we go as we're going now, when will some countries in the global south be able to have access to vaccines? Predictions are based on current supplies and the vaccines that are currently on the market. There may be some new ones that come into the market. We are talking about end of 2024, maybe early 2025, like the lower income countries. That's like in four years. Yes. That's a long time. That's a long time and we could get new supplies in within six months to eight months. If we suspended the IP, if we all play together. Remember, there's 40 manufacturers in part of the developing country vaccine manufacturing network. And a lot of many of these are pre-WHR World Health Organization pre-qualified for other vaccines. They provide 3.5 billion doses for other vaccinations that they make. So why can't we utilize that capacity? Now, keep in mind, when they say that some countries at this current rate won't have vaccines until 2024, 2025, that's just a reference to when they can start doing vaccinations. You can start, but if you're doing 1,000 vaccinations per day, is that really sufficient? Of course it isn't. So that's why the pace that we're vaccinating people right now, it's way too slow. And it's not like just automatically, all of the barriers will be lifted if the trip's waiver is approved by every single country. Of course, there are other things to consider. The materials used to create these vaccines. But still, as the point that was made in that video by the trip's advocate, is that you can't have any barriers up. We have to make sure that whatever manufacturers around the globe who are already incapable of reproducing these vaccines, we let them do that because we can't afford not to.