[Access to anti-covid vaccines: research, development and role of patents.] / Accesso ai vaccini anticovid: ricerca, sviluppo e ruolo dei brevetti.

Access to vaccines against covid-19 is a very topical issue. On the one hand, we are suffering from supply problems and inadequate availability of doses both nationally and internationally. On the other hand, public health needs do not coincide with those of the market economy: the need to vaccinate the entire world population to overcome the pandemic cannot be satisfied due to market rules and limits in production processes. The result is a radical inequality in access to vaccines. We are aware of the delicate balance between health and economy: the latter cannot ignore the former. Also for this reason, the demand for greater equity in access to vaccines is growing: the race for innovation may not be hindered by a targeted relaxation of the rules on intellectual property during a pandemic health emergency.

Academic careers and the COVID-19 pandemic: Reversing the tide.

The COVID-19 pandemic halted research operations at academic medical centers. This shutdown has adversely affected research infrastructure, the current research workforce, and the research pipeline. We discuss the impact of the pandemic on overall research operations, examine its disproportionate effect on underrepresented minority researchers, and provide concrete strategies to reverse these losses.

Revising the a Priori Hypothesis: Systemic Racism Has Penetrated Scientific Funding.

To manifest our sincerest aspirations to "enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability," the US biomedical research enterprise must directly confront the reality of structural racism in scientific funding and the widespread denial of its existence. I believe that moment in American history has, at long last, arrived.