Document Type : Viewpoint
Authors
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
Keywords
Main Subjects
Introduction
To bring the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to an end and begin the process of social, economic and public health recovery, international cooperation for the continued development and equitable distribution of high-quality diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines is necessary. Although critics have rightly pointed out that achieving universal coverage and equitable access to these health technologies would require reforms to intellectual property rules as well as increased global manufacturing capacity,1 in the meantime the ‘Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator’ (ACT-Accelerator), led by the World Health Organization (WHO), is the only global multilateral effort designed to ensure the worldwide distribution of these products. In this viewpoint, we focus on what it would take to fully fund this mechanism and make it successful on its own terms... (Read more...)