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Is there any reason not to increase vaccine production rates so we have the capacity to vaccinate the world population faster than every 9 months?

• endisneigh 5y ago
  nope - as you allude to, ideally we could spit out these vaccines and just give people 6-month boosters until everyone is vaccinated and we're good. I believe the issue is that too many people fail to get vaccinated so it's challenging. Requiring boosters might also convert small numbers of people who got a vaccine one to not get it subsequent times.
  • dv_dt 5y ago
    In the first world there is an issue of take up. But around much of the rest of the world, the issues is they haven’t received nearly enough vaccine. If we don’t significantly vaccinate much of the rest of the world, my expectation is a continued high rate of variant creation as well as continued economic instability due to logistics disruption.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
• SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
  > Is there any reason not to increase vaccine production rates Intellectual property rights. It's not a "good" reason. But it's a reality that needs to be overcome. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/safricas-ramaphosa-accuses-big-pharma-selfish-unjust-vaccine-policy-2021-06-21/ https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/... https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/22/headlines/south_african_president_blasts_big_pharma_for_refusing_to_share_covid_19_vaccine_technology https://www.democracynow.org/2021/6/22/headlines/south_afric... Germany doesn't want the Pfizer vaccine made freely: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/germany-opposes-us-plan-waive-patents-covid-19-vaccines-2021-05-06/ https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/... and by some co-incidence, this is good for German money: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-biontech-idUSKBN2FB15A https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-economy-biontech-...
  • deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
    • SideburnsOfDoom 5y ago
      And my understanding is that while opening up IP does not solve all the issues, it is a necessary step to loosen supply constraints. That is why the sources above are calling for it.
• JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  > Is there any reason not to increase vaccine production rates so we have the capacity to vaccinate the world population faster than every 9 months? Capital constraints. Most specifically, human capital. mRNA production methods, including for critical precursors, are complicated. There is a limited number of people who can build and monitor the productions systems.
  • raducu 5y ago
    There are countries filled with idiots,like my lovely Romania where 70% of people don't want to get vaccinated, and we have to sell/donate millions and millions of doses.
    • andreidd 5y ago
      Well, that's only partially true. Romania has preordered 120M doses for (at best) 15M eligible people. So either way, we'll have to donate tens of millions of doses.
    • disgruntledphd2 5y ago
      The Irish population (including myself) are very grateful for this :) Kinda sucks for Romania though.