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> Almost none of those billions were spent on sars-like coronaviruses though That’s just not true. And at any rate, you’re only saying that with perfect hindsi
by philwelch 7y ago
> Almost none of those billions were spent on sars-like coronaviruses though
That’s just not true. And at any rate, you’re only saying that with perfect hindsight, ignoring the other pandemic threats and actual, not potential epidemics that were addressed.
There’s an equally likely scenario as the one we find ourselves in now where research prioritizes coronaviruses and, as a result, there’s an Ebola or influenza pandemic instead. Or maybe we manage to avert first-world pandemics altogether at the expense of simply letting millions of people in the Global South die from HIV/AIDS.
> Antivirals are only being developed if they can immediately turn a profit.
Again this is ludicrous. Developing and producing antiviral drugs to treat Ebola and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa wasn’t done for profit. There’s no profit to be made there anyway, certainly not compared to wealthier markets like Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, or South Korea that faced coronavirus outbreaks in the past. Though, as it turns out, one of the more promising COVID antivirals, remdesivir, was originally intended to treat Ebola in the first place.
- boomboomsubban 7y ago>That’s just not true. And at any rate, you’re only saying that with perfect hindsight, ignoring the other pandemic threats and actual, not potential epidemics that were addressed This has been known as one of the major pandemic threats for quite some time now. Additional resources should have been spent preparing for it, but that doesn't require diverting resources from other threats. >Or maybe we manage to avert first-world pandemics altogether at the expense of simply letting millions of people in the Global South die from HIV/AIDS HIV/AIDS has killed around 800,000 people so far. If you're viewing this from a utilitarian view that is clearly the right choice. This pandemic already has the potential of killing more people in the Southern Hemisphere than HIV/AIDS has so far. And again, developing medicine for other diseases is still possible. >Developing and producing antiviral drugs to treat Ebola and HIV in sub-Saharan Africa wasn’t done for profit. Providing some relief for those in impoverished areas does not stop drug companies from making huge profits elsewhere. The US has already spent billions stockpiling for Ebola, and HIV spreads in wealthy countries as well.
- philwelch 7y ago> HIV/AIDS has killed around 800,000 people so far. That’s in a single year, actually. And the annual death rate was significantly higher before PEPFAR.
- boomboomsubban 7y agoI triple checked my source for that, I don't know how I still fucked that up. I blame tiredness, but my mistake.