“Growing numbers of health officials and advocacy groups worldwide are calling for Western governments to use aggressive powers — most of them rarely or never used before — to force companies to publish vaccine recipes, share their know-how and ramp up manufacturing.” NYT: Rich Countries Signed Away a Chance to Vaccinate the World. “It was like a run on toilet paper. Everybody was like, ‘Get out of my way. I’m gonna get that last package of Charmin,’ said Gregg Gonsalves, a Yale epidemiologist. ‘We just ran for the doses.'” And for now, other countries have no way to roll their own.

+ And it’s not just about ethics. “Lack of supply and lopsided distribution threaten to leave entire continents open as breeding grounds for coronavirus mutations. Those variants, if they prove resistant to vaccines, could spread anywhere in the world, including in Western countries that have been vaccinated first.” WaPo: Drug companies defend vaccine monopolies in face of global outcry.

+ Ethics and health not doing it for you? How about straight up politics. Biden’s next challenge: Vaccine diplomacy. “China has gotten a head start on vaccine diplomacy, sending millions of doses all over the globe, including to Latin America. Experts say it’s in America’s interests to compete in the race to vaccinate the world, and the calls to start doing so are getting louder.”

+ Meanwhile, many of those fortunate enough to live in the right place at the right time are determined to do the wrong thing. The US is about to reach a surprise milestone: too many vaccines, not enough takers.