4 ms·

I hate suggestion like this - most of the government involvement so far has been negative - don't wear masks, do wear masks and cloth masks are fine (they proba

I hate suggestion like this - most of the government involvement so far has been negative - don't wear masks, do wear masks and cloth masks are fine (they probably are not). We're going to cancel doctors license who go out of order in vaccine distribution (so now when the 65 year old drives their 75 year old partner in they can't both be vaccinated). If anyone actually cared about this there is an EXISTING mechanism to get business to produce pretty much any quantity of anything you want. You pay them money. Instead the government is constantly canceling contracts, seizing products, stopping the sale of products for more than 10% more than historic prices etc. ALL these steps REDUCE confidence in making a big / high risk investment. My guess - if we looked at even existing use of the DPA - probably most stuff got made by folks not expert in making it and sat in a warehouse. I'm serious - I want to know how many ventilators made under DPA by rando companies are actually in use? I've worked in govt contracting - the govt does not get "the best" producers to produce, in situations like this the hands reach out from the experts playing the govt contracting game. Not end of world normally, but with lives on the line some more standard approaches would be refreshing.

tachyonbeam 6y ago
This is an emergency situation. I don't know if we can count on individual companies to just do the right thing. They might be risk-averse, afraid of financial losses, but we need them to go full-steam ahead. Pfizer and Moderna should definitely be financially compensated for everything they produce. We could pay them above cost and basically guarantee their financial success in this operation. It's possible that the current generation of vaccines could end up being outdated, and there could be some amount of waste, but the important thing is the production rate. When an updated vaccine becomes available, we want to be able to produce it and distribute it as fast as possible. On another note, there's also research into oral vaccines. IMO that would be amazing if it could pan out. Imagine if we could just mail people capsules containing booster doses updated for the latest strain every month. We'd crush any pandemic in no time.
- maxerickson 6y ago
  The really wild vaccines use a self replicating viral vector. One of Merck's discontinued candidates used a live, replicating virus. I guess if you really nail the science, you can make it infectious and vaccinate by breathing on people.
  - vkou 6y ago
    > I guess if you really nail the science, you can make it infectious and vaccinate by breathing on people. I suppose that a government-funded infectious vaccine would be one way to get anti-maskers to reverse their stance on wearing cloth face coverings...
inpdx 6y ago
Disagree completely. This is war. Governments fight wars. It's one of the primary roles of government. In WW2 all sorts of prioritization and direction came from government. This should be the same.
pertymcpert 6y ago
You think the government are the ones manufacturing the vaccines?
croes 6y ago
Which high risk investment? The governments funded the research and buy pretty much any working vaccine. Just look at Oxford and AstraZeneca. And it's not only about quantity but also about distribution. What do you think how much money is needed to vaccinate lots of people in a short period of time. Money is the reason why so few companies produce vaccines in the first place. Long term treatment make more profit than one time shots.

tachyonbeam 6y ago

This is an emergency situation. I don't know if we can count on individual companies to just do the right thing. They might be risk-averse, afraid of financial losses, but we need them to go full-steam ahead. Pfizer and Moderna should definitely be financially compensated for everything they produce. We could pay them above cost and basically guarantee their financial success in this operation. It's possible that the current generation of vaccines could end up being outdated, and there could be some amount of waste, but the important thing is the production rate. When an updated vaccine becomes available, we want to be able to produce it and distribute it as fast as possible. On another note, there's also research into oral vaccines. IMO that would be amazing if it could pan out. Imagine if we could just mail people capsules containing booster doses updated for the latest strain every month. We'd crush any pandemic in no time.

maxerickson 6y ago
The really wild vaccines use a self replicating viral vector. One of Merck's discontinued candidates used a live, replicating virus. I guess if you really nail the science, you can make it infectious and vaccinate by breathing on people.
- vkou 6y ago
  > I guess if you really nail the science, you can make it infectious and vaccinate by breathing on people. I suppose that a government-funded infectious vaccine would be one way to get anti-maskers to reverse their stance on wearing cloth face coverings...

inpdx 6y ago

Disagree completely. This is war. Governments fight wars. It's one of the primary roles of government. In WW2 all sorts of prioritization and direction came from government. This should be the same.

pertymcpert 6y ago

You think the government are the ones manufacturing the vaccines?

croes 6y ago

Which high risk investment? The governments funded the research and buy pretty much any working vaccine. Just look at Oxford and AstraZeneca. And it's not only about quantity but also about distribution. What do you think how much money is needed to vaccinate lots of people in a short period of time. Money is the reason why so few companies produce vaccines in the first place. Long term treatment make more profit than one time shots.