Nobel Prize winners urge US to back Covid vaccine waiver

More than 60 former heads of state, including former leaders of Britain and France, and over 100 Nobel Prize winners called on US President Joe Biden to back a waiver of intellectual property rules for Covid-19 vaccines.

A waiver would boost vaccine manufacturing and speed up the response to the pandemic in poorer countries which otherwise might have to wait years, they said in a joint letter to Biden sent to news organisations on Wednesday.