Big lie behind who gets to make COVID vaccines won't protect us With omicron breathing down our nec

[riversedge]

@pritikrishtel
From @ChelseaClinton
and me:

There are "at least 120 manufacturers across Africa, Latin America, and Asia capable of producing mRNA vaccines. What they need in order to start saving lives is for the monopolies standing in their way to be removed.”

Link to tweet

?s=20&t=7oraLEYlg-GMEp9-UiKysQ







Big lie behind who gets to make COVID vaccines won't protect us
With omicron breathing down our necks, America has to empower the world to vaccinate itself

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/12/16/covid-vaccine-omicron-share-mrna/8909296002/


Priti Krishtel and Chelsea Clinton
Opinion contributors

Global health experts’ predictions are being realized. In the midst of tragically unequal vaccination access, a new variant of COVID-19 has emerged. As omicron cases are identified all over the world, no GDP is high enough and no health system strong enough to keep out the truth: Nobody is safe until we are all safe.

What is standing in our way of making sure the whole planet gets the vaccines that will actually get this pandemic under control?

Not lack of charity. The United States has shipped more than 300 million doses to over 110 countries (out of the 1.1 billion pledged). It’s heartwarming, but it’s not paradigm-shifting. Less than 4% of the population in low-income countries has been fully vaccinated, compared with more than two-thirds in higher-income countries.

Not lack of incentive. Though not everyone recognizes it, low vaccination rates anywhere put everyone at risk everywhere for new and potentially more deadly variants. Omicron is a case in point. This new wave already means more economic backsliding, unfair travel bans and the emotional toll of revisiting last year’s myriad traumas.
Pfizer and Moderna are expected to reap billions in profit

What’s really preventing us from closing the vaccine gap is the belief that markets can efficiently solve global health challenges, even the most urgent and ubiquitous ones. Governments in wealthy countries continue to abrogate their public purpose in favor of private interests. We, the authors, are not anti-innovation or anti-competition. We are pro-public health and pro-solving global challenges at global scale with governments in the driver’s seat.




The pharmaceutical industry in the West and its proponents claim that manufacturers from other countries do not have the capability to make vaccines.

That, as we discuss below, is a lie. The politically and socially objectionable truth? They are doing exceptionally well by keeping this lifesaving knowledge to themselves. In 2021 alone, Pfizer and Moderna are expected to reap over $50 billion in vaccine sales, and an eye-popping $93 billion next year.

Paul Mango:Mission accomplished: How America achieved the 'impossible' with COVID vaccines

And it doesn’t stop at COVID-19. They stand to make even more profit by using this knowledge and technology to address other diseases.

We have to empower the world to vaccinate itself. But so far we’ve been distracted by a false narrative about the limited capabilities of manufacturers in the Global South rather than what we know in our bones: that ingenuity and dedication are everywhere..................................................................

[IbogaProject]

1. Use the defence production act

Use the defence production act to force compulsory licencing.

[SergeStorms]

2. That only pertains to U.S. companies....

and you can't force them to sell licensing worldwide, just within the U.S.. They only have so much manufacturing capability with it's U.S.

Would it be great if they waived licensing fees worldwide? Of course, but no one can force them into doing that outside the U.S. borders.

It would be nice if the U.N. entered into negotiations with Pfizer and Moderna to make it easier for other countries to produce the vaccines, but liability issues alone would be legally exhausting.