Listen now (27 mins) | Last October India and South Africa appealed to the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patent or intellectual property (IP) rights such that COVID-19 production and distribution worldwide could be accelerated. As of a month ago 80% of COVID-19 vaccines had gone to those in in high or upper middle income countries while only 0.2% had gone to those in low income countries - meaning it was projected to take until 2024 to inoculate developing world populations. The Trump administration opposed a waiver. In early May, the Biden administration announced it would support a so called TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver over the opposition the European Union (EU) and the pharmaceutical industry - though Moderna announce last fall it would not enforce its COVID vaccine-related patents). Along with recent administration announcements to purchase and distribute over 500 million vaccines worldwide, the administration has evidently recognized the moral imperative and the fact COVAX, the WTO's initiative to pool vaccine resources, remains profoundly underfunded.