[GOAL] COVID IP waiver request: interesting but not entirely informed?

Thu Sep 2 09:57:40 BST 2021

Hi Heather,

I see this as a positive action to address the situation. Given that ‘open access’ is not mentioned in the document, it makes me wonder if anyone involved was an advocate of open access. Could it just be a case of convergence? The impetus for OA advocacy and the use of the pandemic example was the desire to open up the research, now the impetus to open up the research is the pandemic.

Because governments are multifaceted organisations, I don’t think that the same ministers or civil servants (admittedly my knowledge of global governments and their compositions is shockingly poor, so I could be wrong) would be involved in either project i.e. (1) IP waivers and (2) expanding capacity in local pharma. I think it’s unlikely that one precludes the other. Also, it is worth noting that the driver for IP waivers is the global approach, whereas expanding capacity in local pharma is potentially global, but mostly local.

I am also not sure if short-term solutions are the right solutions. In the UK we are doing incredibly well with vaccinations, but our government – who are satisfied with this short-term solution – are advocating the opening up of the economy and social interaction at our own discretion. As a result cases are climbing again. While the link between infection and hospitalisation (or worse) is weakened, this approach has completely incapacitated the clinically vulnerable again. There are many clinically vulnerable people who were economically active and had a good prognosis, it’s not just those who are at deaths door, which is the idea some governments would like us to hang onto. The delta variant has been a devastating blow for this vulnerable community and it demonstrates why we probably need to be working more in the medium-term, and certainly a long-term approach will save more lives.

Best wishes,
Steven

Dr Steven Vidovic
Head of Open Research & Publication Practice
Library
University of Southampton
Room 4068, Building 36, Highfield Campus
Southampton SO17 1BJ
[cid:image004.jpg at 01D79FE0.F610DD30]Chat with me on Teams!<https://teams.microsoft.com/l/chat/0/0?users=suv1n18@soton.ac.uk>
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/library/
Orcid<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Forcid.org%2F0000-0002-4726-8018%3Flang%3Den&data=04%7C01%7Cgoal%40eprints.org%7C0119cae1efde46e8b0c308d96defb871%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661698615902678%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=X1mG0ne6ct%2FqyEWr16WVEOAMXjwU%2BzsiN3xYTNivlzo%3D&reserved=0> | Publons<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublons.com%2Fauthor%2F1240982%2Fsteven-uros-vidovic%23profile&data=04%7C01%7Cgoal%40eprints.org%7C0119cae1efde46e8b0c308d96defb871%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661698615912633%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=etzzyooy3jAKPNYBsv7uaxYH%2BUXlIqHULljH3sL%2BXgU%3D&reserved=0> | ResearchGate<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FSteven_Vidovic&data=04%7C01%7Cgoal%40eprints.org%7C0119cae1efde46e8b0c308d96defb871%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661698615912633%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=Dup04GL5AiFSqMGYPnX90QyUrDjcPZpdZiIGiI%2F8YLs%3D&reserved=0> | Linkedin<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.linkedin.com%2Fin%2Fsteven-vidovic-611b653b%2F&data=04%7C01%7Cgoal%40eprints.org%7C0119cae1efde46e8b0c308d96defb871%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661698615922590%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=j%2Ff5tHgDU6YUNJyPhWjGOi4WuUBmvbuONqDfn7%2FdZ7s%3D&reserved=0> | Twitter <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fstevevidovic%3Flang%3Den&data=04%7C01%7Cgoal%40eprints.org%7C0119cae1efde46e8b0c308d96defb871%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661698615922590%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=bycrsVcjpSHcPPUdFtBu%2FfJuOKuWPetcuKL7JIq4B%2B4%3D&reserved=0>
[cid:image001.png at 01D5FE03.B148E880]<http://library.soton.ac.uk/ld.php?content_id=31752198>

From: Heather Morrison<mailto:Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca>
Sent: 01 September 2021 21:41
To: Global Open Access List (Successor of AmSci)<mailto:goal at eprints.org>
Subject: [GOAL] COVID IP waiver request: interesting but not entirely informed?

I note with interest the request from India and South Africa for a full waiver of IP rights with respect to anything relating to COVID:
https://docs.wto.org/dol2fe/Pages/SS/directdoc.aspx?filename=q:/IP/C/W669.pdf&Open=True<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.wto.org%2Fdol2fe%2FPages%2FSS%2Fdirectdoc.aspx%3Ffilename%3Dq%3A%2FIP%2FC%2FW669.pdf%26Open%3DTrue&data=04%7C01%7CS.U.Vidovic%40soton.ac.uk%7C53a9e19fcaa74be3655908d96d88e6b3%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661257015654412%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=tl%2FZZxw9LP8cBP1zFx0TJzcN9XnRsrX23SkzRw3ol8s%3D&reserved=0>

This sounds like the kind of initiative that OA enthusiasts might well have been involved in or support. The reason for this post is that I am hoping GOAL readers might have some background or perspective on this.  Also, I worry about OA enthusiasm and the strength of the OA movement distracting people in power from the most effective ways to address the pandemic, and in the medium to long term, the impact this could have on the OA movement per se.

Why do I characterize this as a distraction from effective COVID-19 action?

One example: in Canada, early action on vaccination was delayed because the country has little to no vaccine manufacturing capacity. (We have since caught up, through purchase because we are a rich country, and are among the most vaccinated country in the world). Full waivers on IP by every vaccine manufacturer in the world would not have made any difference to this situation. What will make a difference in future is the development of vaccine manufacturing capacity in Canada. This will happen, most notably a forthcoming factory by the maker of the Moderna vaccine. In this context, pushing the government to support full IP waiver rather obviously would not accomplish anything in the reasonably foreseeable future. If I were in government I would see things this way: big pharma is helpful - finding, manufacturing and distributing vaccines in a time frame that is unheard of, while IP waiver advocates seem like nice, well-meaning people who are not making much sense or offering viable short-term solutions.

My personal perspective is that all health care is a human right and should not be left to the corporate sector for profit-making. However, in a crisis the most important thing to do is to find and implement solutions. Fixing the economy can wait. Switching pharmaceutical development and distribution from a profit to a people centered basis is a laudable goal. This will probably take longer to accomplish than flipping scholarly communication production from the demand to the supply side for OA. The world should not have to wait decades for COVID relief.

The WHO letter mentions but does not request what I suggest is a more likely approach to avoiding IP interference with addressing the pandemic in the short term: compulsory licensing. This is a flexibility already permitted under TRIPS, as the World Trade Organization (WTO) explains here:
https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/trips_e/public_health_faq_e.htm

My personal preference is to do away with "intellectual property" altogether. However, in the short term it makes more sense to advocate for full use of a flexibility that is already available rather than pushing for a major global policy change that, it should be obvious, would be a hard sell.

To get back to why I characterize this as a distraction: India & South Africa are asking for a policy change that is a hard sell when the policy per se is not likely to do very much to address the pandemic in the short term, and with respect to policy, there is an existing solution that would be a much easier sell (compulsory licensing)

Background or comments, anyone?

Dr. Heather Morrison

Associate Professor, School of Information Studies, University of Ottawa

Cross-appointed, Department of Communication

Professeur Agrégé, École des Sciences de l'Information, Université d'Ottawa

Principal Investigator, Sustaining the Knowledge Commons, a SSHRC Insight Project

sustainingknowledgecommons.org

Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca

https://uniweb.uottawa.ca/?lang=en#/members/706<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Funiweb.uottawa.ca%2F%3Flang%3Den%23%2Fmembers%2F706&data=04%7C01%7CS.U.Vidovic%40soton.ac.uk%7C53a9e19fcaa74be3655908d96d88e6b3%7C4a5378f929f44d3ebe89669d03ada9d8%7C0%7C0%7C637661257015664368%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=1ukeNJGJTicYiMzGtjqbOHMusEzx7Fr71%2B7z%2FsXomDE%3D&reserved=0>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/attachments/20210902/d55b6e46/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 336571D204674A1F8A56779F0CDDB253[80985627].png
Type: image/png
Size: 240548 bytes
Desc: 336571D204674A1F8A56779F0CDDB253[80985627].png
Url : http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/attachments/20210902/d55b6e46/attachment-0001.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 0564C8662617423DBB994F3648A18C76.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1042 bytes
Desc: 0564C8662617423DBB994F3648A18C76.jpg
Url : http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pipermail/goal/attachments/20210902/d55b6e46/attachment-0001.jpg 