State-Sponsored Cyber Terrorism. Insurance against Cyber-Attacks under the Purview of Terrorism Insurance

Abstract

The world faces an insurmountable task in the form of the mission of universal vaccination in its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The first hurdle in this mission came in the form of developmental challenges to the development of the vaccines. However, as a result of ample investment and painstaking efforts, vaccines have been developed which have proven their efficacy in inoculating people against the virus. The next step in the mission is to ensure adequate and equitable distribution of these viruses to the entire population of earth in order to effectively bring an end to the pandemic. As the roll out of vaccines has begun a glaring problem that has been observed to emerge is the inequitable distribution of vaccines. While developed and high-income countries have stocked vaccines in quantities more than their requirements, several low-income countries are barely meeting their domestic demand. Lowincome countries are at the most disadvantage as a considerable number of them do not possess manufacturing capabilities and the prices that they are charged for the vaccines by the patent holders is too high for them to economically sustain. This has raised questions on the provisions of the TRIPS agreement which protects intellectual property rights of patent holders internationally. The patent protection provided on Covid-19 vaccines under the TRIPS Agreement has been making equitable distribution of vaccines a difficult task. Hence, India and South Africa, along with several co-sponsors including a large number of low income countries brought a proposal to waive some provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in order to facilitate manufacture of generic versions of vaccines without causing any infringement of any intellectual property rights. The proposal has met with vehement opposition from the developed countries who have cited the presence of provisions for flexibilities under the TRIPS Agreement. However, as the study finds, these flexibilities are inadequate.