SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
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
-------
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.
(202) 588-1000LATEST NEWS
Top Medical Organizations Warn RFK Jr. Putting American Kids 'At Grave and Immediate Risk'
"Truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary... he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies," stated a new lawsuit.
Jul 07, 2025
Six major medical organizations on Monday filed a lawsuit against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. alleging he is putting American children at "grave and immediate risk" because of his policy on vaccines.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit—including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Massachusetts Public Health Association, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine—charged that Kennedy earlier this year made a "baseless and uninformed policy decision" when he removed vaccinations against Covid-19 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) official immunization schedule for "healthy" children and pregnant women.
The organizations emphasized that unless Kennedy's decision is reversed, "all children remain at grave and immediate risk of contracting a preventable disease" and further warned that it "exposes... vulnerable populations to a serious disease with potentially irreversible long-term effects and, in some cases, death."
The plaintiffs further charged that Kennedy's directive removing the Covid-19 vaccines from the immunization schedule was "but one example of the secretary's agenda to dismantle the longstanding... science- and evidence-based vaccine infrastructure that has prevented the deaths of untold millions of Americans."
The complaint then documented Kennedy's long history of statements and articles that have peddled false claims about the safety of vaccinations and pointed to his mass dismissals of staff at HHS and his appointment of likeminded vaccine critics to argue that "it has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."
Given this, the plaintiffs argued that Kennedy's decision to remove the Covid-19 vaccine from immunization schedules was "arbitrary and capricious" based on what they described as "vast and irrefutable evidence," including congressional testimony delivered by Kennedy in which he acknowledged that people shouldn't "be taking medical advice from me"; that Kennedy's directive directly contradicted an article published by the Food and Drug Administration days earlier stating that pregnancy was a condition that "increased a person's risk of severe Covid-19"; and that Kennedy did not identify specific recommendations from professional staff that he used as justification to restrict the availability of the vaccine.
Should courts find that Kennedy's decision was "arbitrary and capricious" as alleged by the plaintiffs, they would have the power to enjoin the policy under the Administrative Procedures Act, which was also employed recently to halt planned mass layoffs at HHS. The medical organizations urged courts to declare Kennedy's policy change "unlawful" and demanded "the restoration of the Covid vaccine recommendations for pregnant women and healthy children ages six months to 17 years" of age.
The medical organizations' lawsuit against Kennedy's vaccination policy comes at a time when infections of measles in the United States have hit a level not seen in more than three decades. The Washington Post, citing data from Johns Hopkins University, reported on Monday that there have been at least 1,277 confirmed cases of measles so far in the U.S. this year and the paper noted that this development "marks a public health reversal in defeating a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease as the anti-vaccine movement gains strength."
Keep ReadingShow Less
2% Wealth Tax on Just 3,000 Billionaires Could Raise $250 Billion a Year: Nobel Economists
"Not only is it necessary to impose a stronger burden of justice on billionaires, but more importantly, it is possible."
Jul 07, 2025
Seven Nobel laureates on Monday published an op-ed advocating for "a minimum tax for the ultrarich, expressed as a percentage of their wealth," in the French newspaper Le Monde.
"They have never been so wealthy and yet contribute very little to the public coffers: From Bernard Arnault to Elon Musk, billionaires have significantly lower tax rates than the average taxpayer," wrote Daron Acemoglu, George Akerlof, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, Simon Johnson, Paul Krugman, and Joseph Stiglitz.
Citing pioneering research from the E.U. Tax Observatory, the renowned economists noted that "ultrawealthy individuals pay around 0% to 0.6% of their wealth in income tax. In a country like the United States, their effective tax rate is around 0.6%, while in a country like France, it is closer to 0.1%."
Although the "ultrawealthy can easily structure their wealth to avoid income tax, which is supposed to be the cornerstone of tax justice," the strategies for doing so differ by region, the experts detailed. Europeans often use family holding companies that are banned in the United States, "which explains why the wealthy are more heavily taxed there than in Europe—though some have still managed to find workarounds."
The good news is that "there is no inevitability here. Not only is it necessary to impose a stronger burden of justice on billionaires, but more importantly, it is possible," argued the economists, who say that taxing the overall wealth of the ultrarich, not just income, is the key.
The wealth tax approach, they wrote, "is effective because it targets all forms of tax optimization, whatever their nature. It is targeted, as it applies only to the wealthiest taxpayers, and only to those among them who engage in tax avoidance."
💡 "One of the most promising avenues is to introduce a minimum tax for the ultra-rich, expressed as a percentage of their wealth."Seven Nobel laureates in economics advocate for the Zucman tax in their latest op-ed.Read the full @lemonde.fr article 👇www.lemonde.fr/idees/articl...
[image or embed]
— EU Tax Observatory (@taxobservatory.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 8:05 AM
The anticipated impact would be significant. As the op-ed highlights: "Globally, a 2% minimum tax on billionaire wealth would generate about $250 billion in tax revenue—from just 3,000 individuals. In Europe, around $50 billion could be raised. And by extending this minimum rate to individuals with wealth over $100 million, these sums would increase significantly."
That's according to a June 2024 report that French economist and E.U. Tax Observatory director Gabriel Zucman prepared for the Group of 20's Brazilian presidency—which was followed by G20 leaders' November commitment to taxing the rich and last month's related proposal from the governments of Brazil, South Africa, and Spain.
"The international movement is underway," the economists declared Monday, also pointing to recent developments on the "Zucman tax" in France. The French National Assembly voted in favor of a 2% minimum tax on wealth exceeding €100 million, or $117 million, in February—but the Senate rejected the measure last month.
The economists urged the European country to keep working at it, writing that "at a time of ballooning public deficits and exploding extreme wealth, the French government must seize the initiative approved by the National Assembly. There is no reason to wait for an international agreement to be finalized—on the contrary, France should lead by example, as it has done in the past," when it was the first country to introduce a value-added tax (VAT).
"As for the risk of tax exile, the bill passed by the National Assembly provides that taxpayers would remain subject to the minimum tax for five years after leaving the country," they wrote. "The government could go further and propose extending this period to 10 years, which would likely reduce the risk of expatriation even more."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Case Challenging Trump's 'Ideological Deportations' of Pro-Palestine Students Heads to Court
"The policy chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens' perspectives on a matter of significant public debate," the Knight Institute said in a statement on behalf of the plaintiffs.
Jul 07, 2025
The Trump administration, for the first time, had to defend its policy of deporting immigrants for their political views in court Monday.
A case filed by a group of professors will be heard in a Massachusetts federal court. The lawsuit challenges attempts by the Trump administration to arrest and remove foreign-born college students from the country based purely on their pro-Palestine speech.
Though hundreds of cases have been filed against the Trump administration since January, this is one of very few that has reached the trial phase.
The case was filed in March by Columbia University's Knight First Amendment Institute on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP); AAUP's Harvard, NYU, and Rutgers campus chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association.
It is one of half a dozen other lawsuits filed following the arrest of Columbia graduate student and protest leader Mahmoud Khalil, who was abducted in the dead of night by plainclothes ICE officers and shipped to a detention center for nearly three months.
Khalil and several other students had their legal immigration status revoked not for having committed any crime, but because the Trump administration deemed their views at odds with the "foreign policy objective[s]" of the United States.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the defendant in this case, has acknowledged stripping the legal status of hundreds of student protesters based on their speech.
"The policy chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens' perspectives on a matter of significant public debate," the Knight Institute said in a statement on behalf of the plaintiffs.
In a pre-trial brief, the group argued that this "ideological deportation policy" illegally discriminates against students and faculty based on their pro-Palestinian viewpoints.
"The First Amendment framework that applies is straightforward," the brief said. "If a regulation of speech discriminates based on content or viewpoint, then the regulation is 'presumptively unconstitutional' unless the government demonstrates that it is 'narrowly tailored to serve compelling state interests.'"
The plaintiffs argue that the intent behind the Trump administration's stripping of green cards and visas from legal holders was to punish speech they found disfavorable and to coerce others into silence.
"Noncitizen members of the AAUP have been chilled by these ideological deportations and forced to self-censor in a variety of different ways, and citizen members have been harmed as a result, because they have been deprived of the insights and engagement of their non-citizen students and colleagues," the brief said.
They cited examples of professors scrubbing their social media accounts to remove commentary on the Israel-Palestine conflict, abandoning research on the Middle East that could prove too "nuanced" for the administration's liking, and even cancelling international travel for academic opportunities for fear of being disallowed entry back into the country.
"The First Amendment does not permit government officials to use the power of their office to silence critics and suppress speech they don’t like," said Andrew Manuel Crespo, a Harvard Law professor and general counsel of the AAUP-Harvard Faculty Chapter.
The AAUP lawsuit marks the first time the Trump administration will defend its use of deportations for political speech in court. But it is not the first time the courts will rule on its attacks against higher education.
Courts have blocked the Trump administration's efforts to ban Harvard from hosting foreign students and strip its funding, saying the measures violated due process.
While the case over deportations deals with non-citizens, AAUP President Todd Wolfson said it has implications for free speech for everyone in America.
"The Trump administration is going after international scholars and students who speak their minds about Palestine, but make no mistake: they won't stop there," Wolfson said. "They'll come next for those who teach the history of slavery or who provide gender-affirming health care or who research climate change or who counsel students about their reproductive choices. We all have to draw a line together—as the old labor movement slogan says: an injury to one is an injury to all."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular