By Michael Rosen

“The more things change, the more they stay the same” may as
well be the motto for the strikingly consistent ongoing debate over waiving patent protections for COVID-19
vaccines.

When we last considered this issue just two short weeks ago, the
COVID-19 delta variant was waning, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) had
pushed off its next upcoming meeting until the end of November. At that time,
the WTO was expected to consider whether to adopt a request submitted more than
a year ago by South Africa and India that would temporarily suspend enforcement
of intellectual property (IP) rights belonging to the developers of the
groundbreaking vaccines. In broad strokes, the United States supports a patent
waiver (with the Biden administration reversing its predecessor’s opposition to
the proposal) while the European Union and several other key countries oppose
it.

But the new omicron variant of the virus has intervened, shelving the planned WTO meeting and throwing into
continued contrast the supposed haves and have-nots of vaccine protection.

As the highly mutable omicron strain emerged, numerous
Western countries immediately closed their doors to the countries where it is
believed to have originated. President Joe Biden announced restrictions on travelers from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho,
Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Israel, where I live, barred all noncitizens from entering the country and
reimposed a quarantine on all travelers. Others followed suit.

The moves prompted more strident rhetoric from activist
groups that have been vigorously advocating for a vaccine waiver. “The vaccine
apartheid that rich countries and the [WTO] have refused to address,” said a coalition called the People’s Vaccine, “is
ultimately responsible for the decision to postpone [vaccine] talks.”

Some Europeans echoed this criticism. “The rise of the
omicron variant must finally let the European Commission see the light: We
won’t get out of this pandemic unless the whole world has access to affordable
vaccines,” Sara Matthieu, a Green Party member of the European Parliament, told
Politico. “Europe has to urgently put people’s health above
pharma profits and support the . . . waiver now,” Matthieu continued. Former
United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown wrote an article for The Guardian entitled “A new Covid
variant is no surprise when rich countries are hoarding vaccines.”

But the EU has held firm in resisting the vaccine waiver,
and rightly so. Calling for a “targeted waiver,” European Commission trade
representative Valdis Dombrovskis instead reiterated the EU’s long-standing
counterproposal to use the WTO’s own process for gently easing IP restrictions
via compulsory licenses — a plan we explored in June.

In any event, omicron isn’t likely to change the calculus on
this issue. Pfizer, Moderna, and the like have ramped up vaccine production
significantly and are providing an increasing number of doses to the developing
world, which they should continue to do even more intensively. Western
governments, led by the United States, should continue to invest in supplying
doses, storage, transportation, and logistical support for the worst-hit
countries. And we should continue to hope that the new variant will pass
without inflicting egregious damage.

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