Intellectual property rights helped America fight Covid-19

When COVID-19 came ashore, glaring gaps in the government's pandemic preparedness became painfully obvious. Everything from inadequate stockpiles of personal protective equipment to confusing and uncoordinated guidance regarding closures hampered our early response.

But, while the government floundered, America's research scientists sprang into action. Moderna actually invented its vaccine mere weeks after the virus was genetically sequenced in January — though of course, it took months of clinical trials to prove the vaccine was safe and 94 percent effective.

Now, over 100 million Americans h...