Coronavirus

November 6, 2020 0

Patent Rights in a Pandemic: Does the Race for a Covid-19 Vaccine Mean Inequitable Access?

(Source)   The coronavirus pandemic has changed life as we know it. The world has come a long way since the initial outbreak, but the uncertainty surrounding a potential Covid-19 vaccine persists. Even with mounting uncertainty, the demand for a safe and effective vaccine continues to increase. The Food and Drug Administration’s approvals and authorizations for the Covid-19 vaccine are only some of the obstacles in this respect. Even if these approvals come through and a vaccine becomes marketable, there is no guarantee that the vaccine will be widely accessible. This is where intellectual property starts playing a crucial role in the distribution and affordability of a potentially successful vaccine. If this vaccine is patented, it would grant exclusive rights to the patent holder to exclude others from making, using, importing, and selling the patented innovation for the duration of the patent grant, within the boundaries of the United States. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is necessary to strike a balance between innovation  and the ethical implications of patents for human health. Patent protection is required to stimulate innovation and incentivize pharma companies given the extensive time and resources needed for the development of a new drug. This incentive is [read more]
June 29, 2020 0

Next on The Trump Show: Trump Exploits the Coronavirus to Ban Immigrants

(Source) While the United States and the world glues their attention to the historic protests for racial justice following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the Trump Administration creates ever-growing casualties like exploding unemployment, rising death tolls, and public unrest, the cast of The Trump Show is drumming up a far more subdued spectacle behind the curtain. Using this historic moment as cover, the Administration has continued to move full-steam ahead towards dismantling the U.S. immigration system. On the heels of the Administration’s latest proclamations prohibiting travel for certain foreign nationals that have traveled to or been present in the People’s Republic of China, Iran, the Schengen Area of the European Union, the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, and Brazil, President Trump, citing labor market conditions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, recently issued two significant Proclamations fundamentally altering the U.S. visa issuance process. In April, Trump signed Proclamation 10014, placing a “temporary” sixty-day ban on the issuance of certain new employment-based permits for lawful permanent residence (also known as green cards). And in June, Trump issued Proclamation 10052, extending the Proclamation 10014 bans until at least December 31, 2020 and issuing a new ban on foreign [read more]
June 19, 2020 0

Fraud and Shortages in the PPE Market and the Failures of the Trump Administration

(Source)   It has been five months since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Seattle, the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. As the virus spread, patients flooded into hospitals as hundreds of people got sick. The US soon realized that hospitals, healthcare facilities, nursing homes, and the government alike were short of the gear that would keep the healthcare workers at the frontline of the pandemic alive and healthy. At a time when their expertise and care were paramount, their lives were put at risk in a way that was unprecedented in recent history. Suddenly, the government and healthcare facilities across the nation were in a frenzy, hurrying to find personal protective equipment (“PPE”) for healthcare workers. What they faced were empty warehouses, factories at capacity, and a market ridden with fraud. This supply chain shortage and fraud in the PPE market is unrelenting and has left practitioners finding alternative means to protect themselves. In March, nurses at Mount Sinai hospital were spotted wearing trash bags fashioned as protective gear. Medical practitioners around the country were forced to reuse PPE, even though the FDA has reported that “protective capabilities of [reused] single-use PPE cannot be assured.” One [read more]
April 24, 2020 0

Kids & Teens in Quarantine: Considerations for Navigating Co-Parenting During COVID-19

(Source) On April 9th, the ABA Center on Children and the Law, ABA Commission on Youth at Risk, and ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice hosted a webinar regarding the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on child welfare cases. The webinar primarily focused on the federal Children’s Bureau’s March 27th guidance on how family courts and family law practitioners should proceed during these uncertain times. Now, more than ever, courts and practitioners play an integral role in ensuring the safety and welfare of children in our country. The Children’s Bureau’s guidance was written in part in response to concerns regarding court closures, postponement of hearings, and complications regarding visitation. Across the country, and even in the Q&A sidebar of the webinar, parents have expressed concern that their co-parenting arrangements will be disregarded by ex-spouses amidst the stay-at-home orders coming down left and right. The isolation and social distancing that the COVID-19 pandemic requires may give parents a greater ability to damage the other parents’ parent-child relationship through explicit and implicit behavior, which may ultimately contribute to a child’s estrangement from both parents. Damaging behavior can include denigrating the other parent in front of the child, encouraging the child to take [read more]

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