European Union leaders cranked up their criticism of the US call to waive Covid-19 vaccine patents Saturday, arguing the move would bring no short or midterm relief.
They instead urged Washington to lift export restrictions if it wants to have a global impact on the pandemic.
“We don’t think, in the short term, that it’s the magic bullet,” said EU Council President Charles Michel on the second day of an EU summit in Portugal. French President Emmanuel Macron insisted that giving any priority to discussing intellectual property rights now, “is a false debate.”
Instead, they joined previous EU calls for US President Joe Biden to start boosting US vaccine exports to contain the global Covid-19 crisis, insisting it was the most urgent need.
“We encourage all the partners to facilitate the export of (vaccine) doses,” said Michel. France added its weight.
“I’m very clearly urging the US to put an end to the ban on exports of vaccines and on components of vaccines that are preventing them being produced,” Macron said. Hundreds of components can go into a vaccine. He mentioned the Curevac company, saying it could not produce a vaccine in Europe because components are blocked in the United States.
While the US has kept a tight lid on exports of American-made vaccines so it can inoculate its own population first, and the UK has acted similarly, the EU has become the world’s leading provider, allowing about as many doses to go outside the 27-nation bloc as are kept for its 446 million inhabitants.