The Omicron variant of the Coronavirus was recently named a "variant of concern" by the WHO. First found in South Africa, the variant has rapidly spread to nearby African countries, Israel, Australia, parts of Europe and Canada. Meanwhile, the WTO called off its upcoming 12th ministerial meet which had on agenda the TRIPS waiver proposed last year by India and South Africa. The waiver aims to improve access to vaccines and diagnostic tools essential to fight Covid-19 in developing countries by relaxing existing patent and intellectual property norms enshrined within the TRIPS agreement. 

In today's episode of Hear Here, we sit down with our former colleague Niha Satyaprakash to discuss her paper on the TRIPS waiver and why there is an urgent need for consensus on the issue.

You can read Niha's paper here: Toward Global Vaccination: The Case for the TRIPS Waiver