Vaccine Equity Petition

May 10, 2021

Hi all,

As more and more of us get vaccinated and we feel the nearing of the end of this dark isolation, we have to recognise that this is not the situation in many parts of the world.

While there are many reasons for this state of affairs, the monopolies created by intellectual property rights play an undeniable role in bringing this about. Countries from the global South have supported some frameworks for temporarily waiving these rights, and countries from the global North have consistently blocked and subverted these frameworks. Hundreds of civil society organisations, including Doctors Without Borders, have come out in support of these waivers.

This article by the Indian economist Jayati Ghosh is an excellent summary of the state of affairs.

We would like to put some pressure on the Biden administration to change their position on this, through the University. Stanford is the producer of a lot of scientific progress (and, consequently, intellectual property) and so a public declaration by the administration would carry some weight. To make this happen, we would like to submit a petition to the Executive Cabinet of the University asking them to pass a resolution calling on the Biden administration to support COVID-19 vaccine IP waivers and ensure equitable global vaccine distribution.

While the Biden administration has taken some recent positive steps in this direction, they are far from adequate; remembering that this announcement shows the effectiveness of public pressure, we must keep the pressure on.

The petition text is at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PBDO40fpdQ7YiGf–7XQQ0jNqobhITQnSf8XX7p9how/edit?usp=sharing

Please sign it at https://forms.gle/BytRJDy4YtFCqgST9

We would also like to request that you share this petition with your colleagues, coworkers and friends in the Stanford community.

Needless to say, every signature helps!

Thanking you,

Ronak M Soni (ronakmsoni@gmail.com)