Posted on 09/23/2020 2:50:26 PM PDT by Jyotishi
As rich nations corner more than half the doses, they must realise that vaccinated pockets don’t lead to stable economies
Vaccine nationalism is rearing its ugly head again even as the Coronavirus pandemic rages on. The implications of manipulating access to essential drugs, particularly HIV-AIDS ones in developing countries, due to bulk purchasing power of richer nations and honouring of pharmaceutical patents, are already known. That crisis worsened. Sadly, the trend continues as the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 intensifies with five leading candidates currently in phase three clinical trials. Who gets hold of the vaccine and when determines which country stops the caseload from going up exponentially, saves lives, escapes the second and third wave predicted by experts and gets on the path of economic recovery faster. However, with the pharmaceutical industry being largely cartelised, it won’t come as a surprise if developing countries are at the far end of the line. Remember the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic? Australia, which was the first country to come up with a vaccine at that time, blocked exports while some of the wealthiest countries entered into pre-purchase agreements with several pharmaceutical companies. The US alone obtained the right to buy 6,00,000 doses. It was only when the H1N1 pandemic began to recede that developed countries offered to donate vaccine doses to poorer economies. However, the damage at that time was not as severe as it will be this time round because the Coronavirus is far more infectious and deadlier than the H1N1 and has almost strangled the have-not nations. If a recent report released by Oxfam is to be believed, wealthy nations, accounting for just 13 per cent of the global population, have cornered a whopping 51 per cent of the promised vaccine doses. It is just what poorer nations and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had feared, that while they would be prime picks for vaccine trials, they would get to use doses the last. The inevitable result would be a deepening of the pandemic. Right now, many world leaders, like US President Donald Trump, who is facing a re-election in November, will not listen to the feeble voice of the poor or the WHO. A vaccine is his ticket to the White House, he needs it for his voters. This “vaccine nationalism” has also emerged at a time when global majors are trying to establish their political prowess while using their scientific superiority to validate the claim. Thus, whoever has the first access to the vaccine will end up on the top of the global pyramid of power, apart from reaping the enormous monetary benefits that come out of it.
One of the developers of the COVID vaccine is Moderna, which has received $2.48 billion in committed taxpayers’ money. It intends to profit from its vaccine and has sold supplies to rich nations at prices that range from $12-16 per dose in the US to around $35 per dose for other countries, leaving poorer nations out of the procurement loop entirely. However, according to reports, the company’s production capacity is barely enough for 475 million people or six per cent of the world’s population. Even if all five vaccine candidates succeed, which is rather unlikely, it is only by 2022 that two-thirds of the world’s population will have access to them. Also, even if one country does get vaccinated, how will its policy on travelling restrictions change? Will the restriction be limited to those who are yet to get access to the vaccine or will they have vaccines for those entering their land? Remember it’s a global pandemic and just like the WHO warned, creating vaccinated pockets will not be beneficial for long if one is aiming for a stable economy. This is why various organisations are calling for a “people’s vaccine”, free of the monopolistic control of the pharmaceutical companies over its sale and urging nations to share the needed information with others so that it is available to every single human being at affordable rates and can be distributed on a need-based rather than a paid-for basis.
If all the five vaccines work, Oxfam says that would amount to a combined production capacity at 5.94 billion doses, enough for 2.97 billion people, keeping in mind that the vaccines will most likely require two doses. The supply deals already agreed upon are for 5.303 billion doses, out of which 2.728 billion (51 per cent) have already been procured by developed countries including the UK, US, Australia, Hong Kong and Macau, Japan, Switzerland and Israel, as well as the European Union. The remaining 2.575 billion doses have either been bought by or promised to emerging countries, including India, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico among others. This also includes the 300 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine pledged to the Covax Advanced Market Commitment (AMC), the vaccine pooling mechanism, promised to developing countries. It is essential for global powers to understand the gravity of the situation and on ethical grounds work in favour of public health and the global economy.
When the Covid vaccine is finally approved, we should call it the Trump Vaccine. Liberals would refuse to take it.
“...But don’t go spearing a bunch of crap to scare people. The last thing President Trump needs is you people spreading lies about the vaccines he’s working to bring to market in the US.”
Bud, you really should go do some research on vaccines.
Here is a good place to start: https://childrenshealthdefense.org/
They have a vaccine for liberals. It comes in one gallon containers. Called Magnesium Citrate. Drink it fast and wait.
Vaccine nationalism
Now i have heard pc socilaist bs for everything
Come back Jesus, quickly
Too many of these people are too far gone
No big money in vitamins
Ditto.
Yeah...
BUT, BUT, BUT, the good and great Dr. FAUCETHEAD promised one back in 1980!
Being a Marine with two tours in the RVN I have been vaccinated for just about everything imaginable (some diseases I never even heard of), but this is one vaccine I will not be getting.
I understand the reasons for the rush, and I certainly don’t blame PRESIDENT TRUMP (damn, I love saying that), but I just don’t trust the Big Pharmas, especially when they are getting a pass on liability.
Oh I’ve done lots of research on vaccines, but based on actual facts and figures; not nonsense goofball tinfoil hat conspiracy theories spouted by members of the Kennedy clan.
The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program was created by Congress when anti-vaxxers nearly sued vaccine makers out of existence in the 1980s. It’s there to ensure that anyone who’s injured by a vaccine is compensated. Its average payout for an injury is six figures; meaning there’s huge incentive to make a claim with them. And the bar of proof is laughably low: you need zero medical proof you were actually injured by a vaccine. All you need to do is make a reasonable claim that an injury happened and it was somewhat around the same time as when you got a vaccine. You don’t need any proof of causation at all to get your six-figure payout.
And with no proof required and a huge payday sitting there waiting for you, how often do they actually pay compensation? About once per one million vaccinations.
Antivaxxer nuts failed with their “vaccines cause pertussis vaccine encephalopathy” nonsense. (The alleged vaccine-induced brain damage proved to be an unrelated condition, infantile epilepsy.) Antivaxxer nuts failed with their “vaccines cause autism” nonsense. And with their “thimerosal causes autism” nonsense. But that bar just keeps on moving on to the next ridiculous claim as soon as the old claim is fully shown to be complete and utter garbage. And the echo chamber that is Facebook lends itself nicely to new absurd nonsense with zero support evidence becoming undeniable fact in the minds of those unwilling to critically evaluate the actual evidence from authoritative sources. But hey, if you can’t trust Aunt Karen on Facebook, who can ya trust? Oh yeah, that’s right, the Kennedy family! SUPER trustworthy bunch, that group!
You are 10 times more likely to be struck by lightning than you are to be hurt by a vaccine.
Yep - hard to come by a stock of HCQ so we do NAC, D, Zinc and 6-8 ounces of tonic water for the quinine.
Navy IRR, only 3 years, MR2, did the vaccinations, but that was in the ‘90s. I do not trust the current ‘vaccinations’ of today..
NOT AT ALL.
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