The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the 27-nation bloc was ready to talk about the U.S. proposal but cagily remained noncommittal for now.
“We are ready to discuss how the U.S. proposal for waiver on intellectual property protection for COVID vaccines could help” end the crisis, she said in a video address. “In the short run, however, we call upon all vaccine producing countries to allow exports and to avoid measures that disrupt supply chains.”
That echoed the position of the global pharmaceutical industry, which insists a faster solution would be for rich countries that have vaccine stockpiles to start sharing them with poorer ones.
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In this April 8 photo, a Northwell Health registered nurses fills a syringe with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at a pop up vaccination site at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center in the Staten Island borough of New York. The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy.
COVID rates are slowly declining across the city with the help of widening vaccine availability. Still, vaccine hesitancy remains a problem and a glance at the Brooklyn map shows significant rates of test positivity in such densely populated neighborhoods as Sunset Park, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Midwood, Borough Park, East New York and Brownsville.