Global herd immunity is the only way to stop the pandemic. This would require 11 billion vaccines. But there is currently no plan on the table that would produce this number of vaccines, two experts warn.
The only way to get there is for the Biden administration to require drug companies to share technology with manufacturers around the world to mass produce vaccines, Georgetown Law’s Madhavi Sunder and Georgetown University’s Matthew Kavanagh argue in Bloomberg Law.
Now, the two experts say, runaway infection rates in India are only exacerbating the situation:

• Just two producers in India were supposed to make vaccines for most of the low- and middle-income countries in the world — but now they must instead focus on rapidly scaling up to serve India — leaving the rest of the world waiting. 
• The drug company monopolies Kavanagh & Sunder wrote about in Bloomberg and in the Washington Post are driving vaccine scarcity.
• India has the world’s largest production capacity for generic medicines, with dozens of world-class producers, but because of global monopolies just two companies in the country are making the Oxford/AZ and J&J COVID-19 vaccines. None are making the mRNA Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. Why? Because the companies refuse to share the technology and the US government refuses to use its leverage to compel them to do so. 

Matthew Kavanagh of Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National & Global Health Law says:
“We’re also seeing a surge in other parts of the rest of the world — Nepal, Colombia, Malaysia could be next. Brazil is still surging. We’re seeing a worrying uptick in Namibia and Botswana. It’s very scary.”
Madhavi Sunder, a Georgetown Law professor & IP expert says:
“The only way to reach global herd immunity is for the Biden administration to require drug companies to share technology with manufacturers around the world to mass produce vaccines in the billions. Global vaccine inequity is unconscionable. It is immoral and threatens our own health security and economy.”