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suddenly HN is keen on defending big pharma. if this happened in the US I can't even imagine the outcry. also, it seems this thread is overrun by brexiteers loo

• ericmay 6y ago
  > US from the start blocked vaccine exports Not sure how I feel about this. I can't help but think: "can't help others if you don't put your oxygen mask on first". It's also hard to see how Americans in particular (and fairly enough any country) wouldn't go absolutely bananas if the government made this huge deal out of COVID-19 and then turn around and exported vaccines to other countries while half a million people were dead. Certainly at least some of this discussion would depend on where you start from (i.e. maybe you're against the idea of a nation or something) - but from a practical standpoint I don't know if there would even be a United States if the situation unfolded this way - the government simply had no choice, and, I think other governments tried to obfuscate that fact and have their cake and eat it too whereas the U.S. and U.K. were pretty quick to decide and focused on their own citizens first. Certainly there is room for debate here and it's an interesting discussion to be had.