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Global, U.S. Protestors Demand WTO Waive IP Restrictions Blocking COVID-19 Vaccine Access Following Delay of WTO Ministerial Due to Omicron Variant
WTO Must Lift IP Obstacles to Greatly Expand Vaccine, Treatment Production or New Variants Will Cause Endless Cycle of Death and Economic Hardship.
Photos of protests here.
WASHINGTON
Today, doctors and medical students, labor and faith leaders and activists across the U.S. and around the world are holding vigils and protests as part of a global call to action demanding the suspension of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that are prolonging the global COVID-19 pandemic by providing monopoly control to a few pharmaceutical corporations which limits supplies of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments.
Protests are being held in a dozen American cities and two dozen locales worldwide in support of an emergency waiver of WTO rules that now empower a few pharmaceutical corporations to decide how much vaccine and treatment is produced and where it is sold. A waiver would allow medicines to be produced in as many places as possible as quickly as possible.
The day of action was planned to coincide with the start of a WTO Ministerial Conference in Geneva, the body's first major decision-making summit in four years. The meeting was postponed indefinitely due to global travel restrictions spurred by the new Omicron variant. Even as the organization that has blocked global access to vaccines is forced to shut down due to a new variant, activists continue to demand the WTO get out of the way of ending the pandemic.
COVID-19 variants like Omicron and Delta develop in regions where few people can obtain vaccines. Today, only 7% of people in low-income countries have had their first dose due to ongoing shortages of vaccine supplies. Participants in many of Tuesday's vigils and protests are observing a moment of silence with the ringing of a bell every four seconds, with each toll symbolizing another preventable COVID-19 death caused by the WTO's inaction.
At his Monday briefing on Omicron, President Joe Biden explained: "But we need to do more than vaccinate Americans. To beat the pandemic, we have to vaccinate the world as well. And America is leading that effort. ... The Delta variants and now the Omicron variant all emerged elsewhere in the world. So we can't let up until the world is vaccinated. We're protecting Americans by doing that as well." On Nov. 26, just before the WTO announced the postponement of the ministerial, Biden reiterated his position and called "on the nations gathering next week for the World Trade Organization ministerial meeting to meet the U.S. challenge to waive intellectual property protections for COVID vaccines."
"The Omicron variant and the Delta variant before it are the endless pandemic that public health experts have warned about unless everyone around the world can get vaccinated and there are no raging COVID outbreaks to hatch dangerous new variants," said Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "The world has wasted more than a year of trying everything but the necessary emergency suspension of pharmaceutical firms' monopoly control over how many vaccines and treatments are made, which is necessary to get the supplies needed to end the pandemic. We need U.S. leadership at the WTO to get our European allies to stop blocking the 100-plus nations that want this waiver and to get a special online WTO meeting to enact a comprehensive waiver immediately."
Advocates for the waiver are holding vigils and protests this week not just across the U.S. -- but also in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Pakistan, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda, the U.K. and more.
This global call to action is endorsed by powerful labor, health and other organization worldwide including the global labor federation, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Public Services International (PSI), Amnesty International, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), Oxfam, Avaaz, the People's Vaccine Alliance, Greenpeace, and many more.
A full list of events is below.
BACKGROUND: More than 100 nations support a temporary, COVID-specific waiver of WTO rules that are part of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). The Biden administration announced its support for this TRIPS waiver in May and Pres. Biden reiterated the urgency of enacting a waiver in his statement on Friday about the omicron variant. But the U.S. government has not acted to get the few close U.S. allies blocking the waiver, the European Union (pushed by Germany), Switzerland and the UK, to allow progress on the critical initiative. A meaningful WTO waiver that can facilitate the necessary scale-up in production will only be agreed to if the Biden administration applies maximum diplomatic and political pressure to make it happen.
Last week, members of Congress joined health, labor, faith and development leaders to deliver three million petition signatures with this demand, and nine U.S. Senators called on President Biden to "deliver on your promise to defeat the pandemic" by actively pushing for the TRIPS waiver at the ministerial. With the ministerial now postponed, advocates are demanding Biden work with the European Union and WTO Director-General to hold an emergency, online meeting to approve the waiver.
This week, a coalition of nurses unions representing well over 2.5 million health care workers from 28 countries around the world -- coordinated by Global Nurses United and Progressive International -- filed a complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on Physical and Mental Health, alleging human rights violations by the EU, UK, Norway, Switzerland and Singapore, for their opposition to the TRIPS waiver. Waiver opposing countries were also directly named and shamed this week by the Council of Global Unions (CGU), which represents over 200 million workers.
Since being introduced over a year ago, support for the waiver has poured in from the majority of U.S. House Democrats, ten U.S. senators, 170-plus former heads of state and Nobel laureates, 400-plus U.S. civil society organizations, 250 international organizations and over 100 international intellectual policy academics.
PROTESTS DEMANDING A COVID-19 WTO WAIVER
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U.S. EVENTS
*All U.S. events on Nov. 30 unless noted
BOSTON, MA
1:00 PM
CHICAGO, IL - two events
3:00 PM
@ 103rd and Western
Time TBA
@ Location TBA
DENVER, CO
5:00 PM
@ Denver Public Library, east lawn
10 W. Fourteenth Ave. Pkwy
NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ
3:30 PM
@ Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
NEW HAVEN, CT
Time TBA
@ Location TBA
NEW YORK, NY
5:15 PM
@ Times Square
Duffy Square area along 46th St.
PORTLAND, OR
6:15 PM
@ The World Trade Center
Corner of SW 2nd and Salmon
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
1:00 PM
@ UCSF, Parnassus Campus
505 Parnassus Ave.
WASHINGTON, DC - two events
12:00 PM
@ Foggy Bottom Metro
23rd and I St. NW
1:30 PM
@ White House
Pennsylvania Ave. & Lafayette Park
GLOBAL EVENTS
Barcelona, ES
Time and Date: TBA
Petition gathering
Belfast, NI
Time and Date: TBA
Petition gathering
Bilbao, ES
Time and Date: TBA
Petition gathering
Brussels, BE
November 30, 5:00 PM CET
Vigil
Geneva, CH
November 30, ALL DAY
8AM: Rally
9AM: International Press Conference
10AM-6PM: Picket @ Centre International de Conferences
5PM-8PM Candlelight march
Geneva, CH
December 1, 9:00AM - 6:00PM
Picket @ Centre International de Conferences
Geneva, CH
December 2, 9:00AM - 6:00PM
Picket @ Centre International de Conferences ATTEND
Geneva, CH
December 3, 9:00AM - 6:00PM
Picket @ Centre International de Conferences
Jakarta, ID
November 30, 9:00 AM
Rally & March @ Embassy or Switzerland
London, UK
November 30, 11:00 AM
Photo stunt shaming the government for opposing the TRIPS waiver.
Mbarara, UG
November 30, Time TBA
Vigil & Moment of Silence @ Mbarara University Of Science & Technology
Melbourne, AU
November 30, 12:00 PM AEDT
Vigil for Global Vaccine Justice.
Online/Virtual Rally
November 23, 9:00 AM ET
"WTO: DON'T TRADE WITH OUR LIVES!" Online Global Rally
Paris, FR
November 30, 6:00 PM ET
"La vie plutot que les profits! Levez les brevets!" Rally & March
Sydney, AU
November 22, 12:00 PM AEDT
Rally to tell Pfizer: "End the Vaccine Monopoly!"
Toronto, CA
November 22, 4:00 PM ET
"All Out for a PeoplesVaccine" Rally
Valencia, ES
Time and Date: TBA
Petition gathering
Vienna, AT
November 22-28
Starting 11:00 AM Nov. 28
Youth activists will hold a 7 day vigil outside the Ministry of Economics Stubenring
Vienna, AT
November 30, 6:00 PM
March & Rally
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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Right-Wing Catholic Off Trump Religion Panel After Israel-Gaza Remarks at Antisemitism Event
"I will not be bullied," said Carrie Prejean Boller. "I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite."
Feb 11, 2026
A conservative Catholic was expelled from President Donald Trump's so-called Religious Liberty Commission this week over remarks at a hearing on antisemitism in which she pushed back against those who conflate criticism of Israel and its genocidal war on Gaza with hatred of Jewish people.
Religious Liberty Commission Chair Dan Patrick, who is also Texas' Republican lieutenant governor, announced Wednesday that Carrie Prejean Boller had been ousted from the panel, writing on X that "no member... has the right to hijack a hearing for their own personal and political agenda on any issue."
"This is clearly, without question, what happened Monday in our hearing on antisemitism in America," he claimed. "This was my decision."
Patrick added that Trump "respects all faiths"—even though at least 13 of the commission's remaining 15 members are Christian, only one is Jewish, and none are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, or other religions to which millions of Americans adhere. A coalition of faith groups this week filed a federal lawsuit over what one critic described as the commission's rejection of "our nation’s religious diversity and prioritizing one narrow set of conservative ‘Judeo-Christian’ beliefs."
Noting that Israeli forces have killed "tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza," Prejean Boller asked panel participant and University of California Los Angeles law student Yitzchok Frankel, who is Jewish, "In a country built on religious liberty and the First Amendment, do you believe someone can stand firmly against antisemitism... and at the same time, condemn the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza, or reject political Zionism, or not support the political state of Israel?"
"Or do you believe that speaking out about what many Americans view as genocide in Gaza should be treated as antisemitic?" added Prejean Boller, who also took aim at the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which has been widely condemned for conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.
Frankel replied "yes" to the assertion that anti-Zionism is antisemitic.
Prejean Boller also came under fire for wearing pins of US and Palestinian flags during Monday's hearing.
"I wore an American flag pin next to a Palestinian flag as a moral statement of solidarity with civilians who are being bombed, displaced, and deliberately starved in Gaza," Prejean Boller said Tuesday on X in response to calls for her resignation from the commission.
"I did this after watching many participants ignore, minimize, or outright deny what is plainly visible: a campaign of mass killing and starvation of a trapped population," she continued. "Silence in the face of that is not religious liberty, it is moral complicity. My Christian faith calls on me to stand for those who are suffering [and] in need."
"Forcing people to affirm Zionism as a condition of participation is not only wrong, it is directly contrary to religious freedom, especially on a body created to protect conscience," Prejean Boller stressed. "As a Catholic, I have both a constitutional right and a God-given freedom of religion and conscience not to endorse a political ideology or a government that is carrying out mass civilian killing and starvation."
Zionism is the movement for a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine—their ancestral birthplace—under the belief that God gave them the land. It has also been criticized as a settler-colonial and racist ideology, as in order to secure a Jewish homeland, Zionists have engaged in ethnic cleansing, occupation, invasions, and genocide against Palestinian Arabs.
Prejean Boller was Miss California in 2009 and Miss USA runner-up that same year. She launched her career as a Christian activist during the latter pageant after she answered a question about same-sex marriage by saying she opposed it. Then-businessman Trump owned most of Miss USA at the time and publicly supported Prejean Boller, saying "it wasn't a bad answer."
Since then, Prejean Boller has been known for her anti-LGBTQ+ statements and for paying parents and children for going without masks during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) commended Prejean Boller Wednesday "for using her position to oppose conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism and encourage solidarity between Muslims, Christians, and Jews," calling her "one of a growing number of Americans, including political conservatives, who recognize that corrupted politicians have been trying to silence and smear Americans critical of the Israeli government under the guise of countering antisemitism."
"We also condemn Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick’s baseless and predictable decision to remove her from the commission for refusing to conflate antisemitism with criticism of the Israel apartheid government," CAIR added.
In her statement Tuesday, Prejean Boller said, "I will not be bullied."
"I have the religious freedom to refuse support for a government that is bombing civilians and starving families in Gaza, and that does not make me an antisemite," she insisted. "It makes me a pro-life Catholic and a free American who will not surrender religious liberty to political pressure."
"Zionist supremacy has no place on an American religious liberty commission," Prejean Boller added.
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St. Paul Mayor: ICE Car Crash Shows 'Operation Metro Surge Needs to End Immediately'
"The incident today at Selby and Western underscores the fact that ICE is still present, causing chaos, and putting residents at risk in Saint Paul," said Mayor Kaohly Her.
Feb 11, 2026
A day after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signaled a possible imminent end to Operation Metro Surge, Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her renewed her call for the immediate conclusion of President Donald Trump's immigration operation in the state following a car crash involving federal agents in her city that left at least one person injured.
"The incident today at Selby and Western underscores the fact that ICE is still present, causing chaos, and putting residents at risk in Saint Paul," Her said in a statement, referring to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"I want to thank those who continue to show up and keep watch over their neighbors," she continued. "I also want to thank the Saint Paul Police for staying on the scene to clean up and ensure those impacted received assistance."
"Because of the reckless way that ICE is running their operation, one person ended up in the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, and several bystanders had their cars damaged," the mayor added. "This is just another incident that tells us loud and clear: Operation Metro Surge needs to end immediately."
The Saint Paul Police said in a statement that at around 9:39 am local time, its officers were called to the intersection, where "a large crowd had formed," and received a preliminary report that "federal agents were pursuing a person in a vehicle when the vehicle crashed."
Police confirmed that "the person that was being pursued sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a local hospital by Saint Paul Fire medics," and directed further questions to ICE and its parent agency, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
"On February 11, ICE officers attempted to conduct a targeted vehicle stop of Alexander Romero-Avila, an illegal alien from Honduras RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration in 2022," DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News Digital. "In a dangerous attempt to resist arrest, this illegal alien tried to evade law enforcement and began driving recklessly and ran red lights, endangering public safety and law enforcement."
"Romero-Avila crashed his vehicle into multiple vehicles and a ICE law enforcement vehicle. Law enforcement immediately called 911 to get medical assistance. No members of the public or ICE officers were injured in the crash. The illegal alien was taken to Regents Hospital for evaluation of injuries," McLaughlin added.
A high-speed car chase involving a federal agent in St. Paul ended with a multi-vehicle crash and injuries to the fleeing driver, who was taken away in an ambulance. bit.ly/4kvJo0M📸: Leila Navidi
[image or embed]
— Minnesota Star Tribune (@startribune.com) February 11, 2026 at 2:38 PM
According to the Minnesota Reformer:
The man was transported to a hospital in an ambulance covered by a sheet. A Saint Paul Fire medic said the man asked to be covered for privacy. The injuries were "not serious, that's all I can say," the medic said. A woman whose airbag went off also went to the hospital; it was unclear whether she was injured.
Three cars were damaged. A crowd of people gathered at the scene, yelling "F*ck ICE" at over a dozen federal agents who had shown up after the crash.
Demands for DHS agents to leave the Twin Cities have ramped up in response to immigration officials' violence against locals, which resulted in two deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis. After ICE officer Jonathan Ross fatally shot Good on January 7, Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez similarly killed Alex Pretti on January 24.
After taking over the operation, Trump's "border czar," Tom Homan, announced last week that 700 immigration agents would leave Minnesota. However, with around 2,000 set to remain there, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, whose district includes Minneapolis, argued that the drawdown was "not enough" and "the terror campaign must stop."
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‘The First Amendment Applies at the Border,’ ACLU Says of Settlement for CBP Interrogating Journalists
“This settlement confirms what we already knew: What happened to us was wrong,” said an award-winning photographer detained at the US-Mexico border as part of a secret program to target journalists in 2019.
Feb 11, 2026
In what the ACLU called a "win for freedom of the press," a pair of federal immigration agencies announced on Wednesday that they settled a lawsuit with five photojournalists who claimed to have been unconstitutionally detained and questioned while reporting at the US-Mexico border.
The five journalists—Bing Guan, Go Nakamura, Mark Abramson, Kitra Cahana, and Ariana Drehsler—are all citizens of the United States who traveled to the border in 2018 and 2019 to report on the journeys of people traveling from Central America as part of migrant caravans.
The journalists said that after reporting on conditions at the border, they were detained by US border officers and questioned about their sources and observations while reporting, which they said was a violation of their First Amendment right in a lawsuit.
"It’s clear the government’s actions were meant to instill fear in journalists like me, to cow us into standing down from reporting what is happening on the ground," said Guan, a freelance photographer who has contributed to Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications.
Shortly after these five journalists were detained, NBC News reported that they were targeted as part of a broader operation by US Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) San Diego sector to detain and interrogate a list of dozens of journalists, lawyers, and activists labeled as "instigators."
Others on this list who were detained, including US citizens, reported being aggressively interrogated about their political views and opinions about the Trump administration.
Tactics have only grown more aggressive during President Donald Trump's second term: Federal immigration agents have hauled off journalists in unmarked vans for recording them, and the administration has repeatedly asserted, incorrectly, that it is illegal to film ICE agents on duty or reveal their identities.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has claimed that recording ICE agents in public constitutes “violence” or a “threat” to agents' safety, and a DHS bulletin issued last year has classified recording at protests as “unlawful civil unrest."
However, several federal courts have overwhelmingly held that the First Amendment protects the right to film law enforcement, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection.
Esha Bhandari, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology project, said the settlement, reached in January, affirms that "the First Amendment applies at the border to protect freedom of the press."
As part of the settlement, CBP will be required to issue guidance to certain border units on First Amendment and Privacy Act protections that apply when questioning journalists at the border.
While the scope of the settlement is limited and does little to protect journalists under threat nationwide, Kitra Cahana, an award-winning photographer and another plaintiff, said it still serves as an important affirmation of press freedom.
“This settlement confirms what we already knew: what happened to us was wrong,” Cahana said. “Government officials should never put journalists on secret lists, interfere with our ability to work and travel, or pressure us for information at border crossings."
"My biggest fear is that other journalists may have avoided important stories out of fear of being targeted themselves," she added. "Press freedom is not a partisan issue. Everyone should be alarmed when journalists are targeted.”
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