By Suzanne Potter

LOS ANGELES -- Rallies in three California cities and across the country, calling for better access to the COVID vaccine, will greet German Chancellor Angela Merkel as she visits the White House today.

Advocates want Merkel to sign an emergency waiver of trade-related intellectual property rights (TRIPS) to the COVID-19 vaccine to allow generics to be produced worldwide, making them cheaper and more plentiful.

Dr. Pauline Muchina, the representative for Africa at the American Friends Service Committee, said Merkel appears to be supporting 'Big Pharma.'

"To have vaccine technology when there is a global pandemic, a global emergency and to refuse to share that technology, that is not humane," Muchina asserted.

Germany has rejected the waiver, arguing quality control and production capacity are bigger problems than patents. Other opponents say patents incentivize pharmaceutical companies to spend time and money developing new medications.

But President Joe Biden supports the TRIPS waiver, a change from the Trump administration. Rallies take place today at the German consulates in Los Angeles and San Francisco and the Emerald Center, the honorary German consulate in
San Diego.

Will Jamil Wiltschko, director of the California Trade Justice Coalition, said any delays in getting the shots out worldwide give the virus more time to mutate and possibly become resistant to vaccines. In addition, he noted taxpayers helped fund vaccine development.

"Governments all around the world poured billions into developing and producing these vaccines," Wiltschko recounted. "And then 'pharma,' using our money, is now trying to hold onto these patent protection so that they can gouge countries individually."

Farheen Jamil, an advocate from Berkeley with family in India and Pakistan, said the vaccine is scarce in poorer countries.

"Honestly, I do think it's frankly racist that it's countries of Brown and Black people," Jamil asserted. "It's as if their lives aren't as valuable."

According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 has killed more than four million people and infected more than 188 million worldwide. Healthcare workers have administered 3.4 billion doses of the vaccines.