I understand your point, but I am not sure it is true in this case. It depends on if production would be higher or not if the patents did not exists. For most patents, I think it is fair to assume they restrict production, but in the case of covid vaccine patents, I think it is not completely clear, because of the money that is being poured into vaccine production.
There are pharmaceutical plants in india begging for permission to manufacture the J&J style vax.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/30/india-wants-access-to-cheap-copies-of-covid-vaccines-so-why-is-australia-holding-out
Thank you for the link. It seems that answers the question. I think that even in the normal case, the patent system as it is designed is an abomination and should be eliminated. That it would be enforced at such a time is flat out insane.
I agree.
Legal Liability for potential harm was thrown out the window post-haste.
But exclusive $$$$ legal profit protection is somehow considered "essential".
COPYRIGHT = CENSORSHIP
You make a valid point. Since the whole discussion on the patents began, I've seen a lot of credible sources say that not the patents, but the complexities of the production processes are the bottleneck for up-scaling the number of doses. Here's one of the more recent explanations; it's not like manufacturing more T-shirts, and production can't be handed over to facilities that aren't well prepared to make this vaccine. But even if that's the case, in my opinion everything should be done to get other production facilities up to speed to help with the production, and that's something I don't see happening. I could be wrong, of course, but so far this reeks like an instance of "profits-over-human lifes," which is business as usual unfortunately...
There are pharmaceutical plants in india begging for permission to manufacture the J&J style vax.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/30/india-wants-access-to-cheap-copies-of-covid-vaccines-so-why-is-australia-holding-out