IV 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. CON. RES. 60 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States Government must 

take steps to end the pandemic now. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

NOVEMBER 9, 2021 

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY (for herself, Mr. BLUMENAUER, Ms. DELAURO, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. CASTRO of Texas, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. GARCI ́A of Illinois, Ms. 

LEE of California, Ms. JACOBS of California, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. 

KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. POCAN, and Ms. PRESSLEY) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 

Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and Means, 

the Judiciary, and Financial Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 

as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 

Expressing the sense of Congress that the United States 

Government must take steps to end the pandemic now. 

Whereas the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID–19 

pandemic call for extraordinary measures by world leaders who must choose to end the pandemic and act accordingly; 

Whereas the Delta variant that was first detected in India 

and increased COVID–19 deaths worldwide, making children dangerously ill and reversing progress in containing 


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COVID–19, shows why ‘‘no one is safe until everyone is 

safe’’; 

Whereas the mismatch between the crisis faced and failure to 

date to deliver on the concrete actions needed to end the 

pandemic is disastrous and unacceptable; 

Whereas new variants may prolong the COVID–19 crisis, and 

the next variant could be the mutation that makes 

COVID–19 vaccines ineffective and causes untold harm 

and suffering; 

Whereas the only way to end the pandemic and safeguard 

Americans’ health and economic security is for the 

United States Government to deliver on President 

Biden’s pledge to save lives worldwide by leading the 

global COVID–19 vaccination effort, including by specifically achieving the President’s goal of 70 percent global 

COVID–19 vaccination by the United Nations General 

Assembly in September 2022; 

Whereas less than 8 percent of the entire population of the 

African continent is vaccinated against COVID–19, and 

most African nations are not projected to reach 10 percent COVID–19 vaccination in 2021; 

Whereas less than 5 percent of people in developing countries 

have received at least 1 dose, and many in developing nations will not have access to COVID–19 vaccination until 

2023 absent significant increases in COVID–19 vaccine 

production and distribution; 

Whereas absent a major increase in global production and 

supply of COVID–19 vaccines, treatments, diagnostic 

tests, and other COVID–19-related medical supplies, the 

pandemic will rage largely unmitigated among a significant share of the world’s population, resulting in further 


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mutation of the virus and increased hospitalizations and 

deaths; 

Whereas COVID–19 has killed 1 out of 500 Americans, and 

the Delta variant elevated the global daily death tolls to 

10,000 people daily; 

Whereas COVID–19 is estimated to cause the United States 

$16,000,000,000,000 in economic losses, accompanied by 

global losses that have impoverished hundreds of millions 

of people worldwide; 

Whereas producing and delivering many more doses of an effective COVID–19 vaccine is the only path to eradicate 

this virus and end the pandemic everywhere; 

Whereas rich countries have yet to ‘‘donate’’ adequate 

amounts of COVID–19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries, as less than 15 percent of the 

1,970,000,000 doses pledged have actually been delivered; 

Whereas an estimated 11,000,000,000 COVID–19 vaccines 

were needed to vaccinate 70 percent of the world’s adults, 

and demand has since increased with some nations initiating booster programs and child COVID–19 vaccination 

plans; 

Whereas a major cause of the shortage is monopoly control 

of how much and where COVID–19 vaccines are made by 

a handful of pharmaceutical corporations that have consolidated their control using intellectual property barriers; 

Whereas voluntary licensing arrangements have not fixed this 

problem given the handful of pharmaceutical corporations 

that are using intellectual property monopolies to limit 

production and supply, and have refused to negotiate 

payment terms with qualified manufacturers in Africa, 


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Latin America, and Asia creating production bottlenecks 

and thwarting production of COVID–19 vaccine doses 

around the world; 

Whereas COVID–19 vaccine monopoly firms are focused not 

on global access, but on profitable markets, as demonstrated by current producers prioritizing delivery of 

booster doses sold at increased prices in wealthy countries while most of the world’s population remains 

unvaccinated against COVID–19; 

Whereas the COVAX initiative aims to only vaccinate 20 percent of the population against COVID–19 in developing 

nations by the end of 2021, and is unable to get enough 

supply to meet this modest goal; 

Whereas people around the globe cheered when President 

Biden announced United States support for the temporary waiver of some World Trade Organization (WTO) 

Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual 

Property Rights (TRIPS) rules; 

Whereas in response to the Biden-Harris administration announcing support for a temporary COVID–19 emergency 

waiver of WTO intellectual property barriers, now more 

than 130 nations support a waiver of WTO intellectual 

property monopolies for pharmaceutical corporations; 

Whereas Germany had pushed the European Union to oppose 

a temporary WTO waiver, and joined only by the United 

Kingdom and Switzerland, the 3 WTO members are 

blocking the rest of the world’s nations that seek to end 

a few pharmaceutical corporations’ monopoly control of 

COVID–19 medicines; 

Whereas there has been no progress made in agreeing to a 

final WTO TRIPS waiver text since the waiver was iniVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:57 Nov 09, 2021 Jkt 029200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\HC60.IH HC60

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tially proposed on October 2, 2020, and every week a 

waiver is not agreed to prolongs the pandemic; 

Whereas breaking monopoly control over production not only 

means more COVID–19 vaccines, but it also will resolve 

COVID–19 vaccine supply chain shortfalls; 

Whereas affordable access can be quickly scaled up for the 

new antiviral COVID–19 treatments that dramatically reduce death and serious illness given that, as small molecule drugs, they can be speedily produced by manufacturers and distributed through networks already functioning for HIV/AIDS medicines if intellectual property 

barriers are eliminated through enactment of a TRIPS 

waiver; 

Whereas to most quickly translate enactment of a temporary 

COVID–19 emergency TRIPS waiver into more COVID– 

19 vaccine shots in arms, more diagnostic tests detecting 

outbreaks and variants, and more treatments to help save 

lives, the United States must work with South Africa and 

other nations supporting a waiver to conclude a final text 

so a waiver can be enacted; 

Whereas to most quickly translate the lifting of TRIPS-imposed intellectual property barriers into billions of 

COVID–19 vaccine shots in arms, the United States 

must leverage the public investment in research, development, and prepurchase of COVID–19 vaccines and exercise its existing rights and authorities to require the 

COVID–19 vaccine monopoly firms to share recipes via 

speedy technology transfer; 

Whereas investments in international COVID–19 vaccine 

manufacturing hubs and infrastructure promote United 

States health security, economic recovery, and national 


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security, and protect Americans from this pandemic and 

better prepare the United States for future pandemics; 

Whereas keeping Americans safe from COVID–19 and revitalizing the American economy to build back better rely 

on people worldwide having access to COVID–19 vaccines, diagnostic tests, therapeutics, and treatments as 

quickly as possible; and 

Whereas a temporary TRIPS waiver does not threaten giving 

United States mRNA technology to China and Russia because such research has already been conducted by scientists around the world for decades, and the patents on 

the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID–19 vaccine are licensed to 

the Chinese firm Fosun Pharma to manufacture that 

COVID–19 vaccine for sale in China: Now, therefore, be 

it 

1 Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 

2 concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that to en3 sure the speediest end of the COVID–19 pandemic— 

4 (1) United States and European governments 

5 should unite to enact a World Trade Organization 

6 (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of In7 tellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver, require 

8 technology transfer, and otherwise facilitate access 

9 in low- and middle-income countries to high-quality 

10 COVID–19 mRNA vaccines; 

11 (2) vital United States partners, with shared 

12 values who also prioritize global cooperation and sav13 ing lives and livelihoods worldwide, should unite to 


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1 remove all obstacles to global access to COVID–19 

2 vaccines, diagnostics, treatments, oxygen, and other 

3 medical products to advance the common goal of 

4 quickly ending the COVID–19 pandemic; 

5 (3) the United States Government should play 

6 its indispensable leadership role to work with South 

7 Africa and other nations to quickly finalize a WTO 

8 TRIPS waiver, overcome the opposition now block9 ing the 130 nations that support a waiver, and se10 cure swift adoption of a temporary COVID–19 waiv11 er of the patent, copyright, industrial design, and 

12 undisclosed data provisions of the WTO TRIPS 

13 Agreement with respect to COVID–19 vaccines, 

14 treatments, diagnostic tests, and other medical prod15 ucts to prevent, contain, or treat COVID–19 and the 

16 inputs and equipment to make such medical prod17 ucts, so that WTO rules no longer thwart others 

18 countries’ wider production of COVID–19 medicines; 

19 (4) the United States Government should lever20 age its massive taxpayer investments in COVID–19 

21 vaccine development and use existing legal authori22 ties under the Defense Production Act, Bayh-Dole 

23 Act, and section 1498 of title 28, United States 

24 Code, to compel COVID–19 vaccine makers to share 

25 the COVID–19 vaccine recipe with willing, qualified 


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1 companies around the world for a fair royalty fee so 

2 more doses can be made as quickly as possible; 

3 (5) the United States Government should 

4 launch and help fund a global manufacturing plan to 

5 increase and democratize COVID–19 vaccine pro6 duction in regional hubs around the world to 

7 produce 8,000,000,000 more COVID–19 vaccine 

8 doses by repurposing existing facilities and building 

9 new capacity, including by allocating funds to capital 

10 expenditures to establish additional COVID–19 

11 mRNA vaccine manufacturing lines and providing 

12 funding for raw materials, technology transfer, and 

13 royalty costs to scale up production and shave years 

14 from the global pandemic; and 

15 (6) the United States Government has an obli16 gation to the American people, whose taxpayer funds 

17 helped to develop these lifesaving COVID–19 vac18 cines, to ensure that doses are ultimately delivered 

19 to those most in need around the world so as to en20 sure the global COVID–19 vaccination that is nec21 essary to end the pandemic. 

Æ 


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