Dear Colleagues,

Priti Patnaik (from Geneva Health Files) nailed it last Friday, with her tweet on Tedros’ support for a (temporary) TRIPS Waiver: “An unequivocal support for the need of the #TRIPSwaiver proposal  @wto by @DrTedros today. Sounded like a defining moment in the pandemic: “If not now, then when?”  Exactly. While I’m not particularly fond of the global health evergreen ‘If not now, then when?’, in this case, its use seems more than justified.

More, things are moving, slowly but steadily, in the right direction. Among others, because John Nkengasong (Africa CDC) is damned right when saying he doesn’t want Africa to be left behind as “the Covid continent” (when rich countries will vaccinate everyone, and then impose travel restrictions). Nkengasong rightly keeps up the pressure on ( too many of our) leaders talking cheaply about ‘global solidarity’ and  vaccination as ‘a global public good’, while engaging much of their time away from the cameras in vaccine...