South African President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks in Cape Town, South Africa, on May 6. Rodger Bosch/AFP/Getty imagesAllowing millions of people to die in poorer countries while wealthy countries immunize their populations could amount to “vaccine apartheid,” according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who also expressed his support for the proposal to waive patent rights for coronavirus shots. “A situation in which the populations of advanced, rich countries are safely inoculated while millions in poorer countries die in the queue would be tantamount to vaccine apartheid,” Ramaphosa said in statement Monday. The waiver on patents that belong to pharmaceutical companies would allow other nations to develop generic versions of the drugs. They say there is an urgent need to simply share more of the rich world's vaccines and to transfer technology to help poorer countries manufacture shots further down the line.

Source: CNN May 11, 2021 14:14 UTC