7 ms·

Q: Why do the vaccines need to be donated? A: Because western countries hold patents on the vaccines and we prioritize profit over lives.

swarnie 5y ago
That's entirely false. The AZ/British vaccine is being provided at cost https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/28/astrazeneca-vaccine-deserves-celebration-not-scorn https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/28/astrazeneca... > AstraZeneca is one of the shining stars of the pandemic. Not only did it produce a vaccine where other big players failed, the UK-Swedish company has pledged to sell it at cost until it is able to declare the pandemic over. If countries still can't afford it they are being given away https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-begins-donating-millions-of-covid-19-vaccines-overseas https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-begins-donating-millio... > the UK has pledged to donate 100 million vaccines overseas by June 2022, 80 million of which will go to COVAX
- ryan_lane 5y ago
  That's one vaccine and one country, and you're not arguing against my point, but shifting the discussion back to donations. The number of vaccines being donated are not even close to sufficient to protect the countries without the means to produce the vaccines. Many countries could produce these vaccines, but are not legally allowed to because we're protecting the patents, so that companies can make profit on them. Without patent protection, they wouldn't be the only companies manufacturing them. It's also strange to say it's entirely false, while giving one example in which the vaccines are being given at cost. Many of the vaccines are not. In some cases the companies are not profiting, in other cases they are.
xyzzyz 5y ago
Why don’t countries with no vaccines develop and produce their own? Ah, that’s right, because they don’t have cutting edge pharmaceutical industry. Now, isn’t it an interesting coincidence that cutting edge pharmaceutical industry exists precisely in those places where most profit is to be made on drugs?
- ngc248 5y ago
  The west basically "developed" by exploiting/colonizing resources from the 3rd world countries. The west basically pulled the ladder once it climbed up. Now you are wondering why the 3rd world countries can't develop their own vaccines.
  - xyzzyz 5y ago
    Comparing how poor South Korea was in 1950 vs how wealthy it is now, can you tell me which 3rd world country it exploited to achieve this wealth?
    - Zircom 5y ago
      Here's a few articles about them exploiting Asian migrant workers. They're both from this year, I can't imagine that the conditions have gotten better over 80 years. Not to mention that with the current state of market globalization, one could argue that simply by participating in international commerce your benefiting from some group being exploited somewhere in the global supply chain. And as an aside, modern capitalism as it stands right now almost necessitates some group be exploited in order to produce cheap labor/goods for consumption for another wealthier group, and the exploited group is most often a poorer country and the goods/labor are then imported. You're not gonna get very far paying your workforce a living wage to produce things that people making that same living wage need to buy, not with the percentage of profit modern owners/shareholders take right off the top. https://www.firstpost.com/world/in-south-korea-asian-migrant-workers-face-exploitation-at-work-in-absence-of-labour-law-protection-9376311.html https://www.firstpost.com/world/in-south-korea-asian-migrant... https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1001194446/as-workforce-ages-south-korea-increasingly-depends-on-migrant-labor https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1001194446/as-workforce-ages-...
      - fastball 5y ago
        One group being wealthier than another group does not automatically make interactions between those two groups "exploitation" / if that is the definition of exploitation that you're using it is practically meaningless.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

swarnie 5y ago

That's entirely false. The AZ/British vaccine is being provided at cost https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/28/astrazeneca-vaccine-deserves-celebration-not-scorn https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/28/astrazeneca... > AstraZeneca is one of the shining stars of the pandemic. Not only did it produce a vaccine where other big players failed, the UK-Swedish company has pledged to sell it at cost until it is able to declare the pandemic over. If countries still can't afford it they are being given away https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-begins-donating-millions-of-covid-19-vaccines-overseas https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-begins-donating-millio... > the UK has pledged to donate 100 million vaccines overseas by June 2022, 80 million of which will go to COVAX

ryan_lane 5y ago
That's one vaccine and one country, and you're not arguing against my point, but shifting the discussion back to donations. The number of vaccines being donated are not even close to sufficient to protect the countries without the means to produce the vaccines. Many countries could produce these vaccines, but are not legally allowed to because we're protecting the patents, so that companies can make profit on them. Without patent protection, they wouldn't be the only companies manufacturing them. It's also strange to say it's entirely false, while giving one example in which the vaccines are being given at cost. Many of the vaccines are not. In some cases the companies are not profiting, in other cases they are.

xyzzyz 5y ago

Why don’t countries with no vaccines develop and produce their own? Ah, that’s right, because they don’t have cutting edge pharmaceutical industry. Now, isn’t it an interesting coincidence that cutting edge pharmaceutical industry exists precisely in those places where most profit is to be made on drugs?

ngc248 5y ago
The west basically "developed" by exploiting/colonizing resources from the 3rd world countries. The west basically pulled the ladder once it climbed up. Now you are wondering why the 3rd world countries can't develop their own vaccines.
- xyzzyz 5y ago
  Comparing how poor South Korea was in 1950 vs how wealthy it is now, can you tell me which 3rd world country it exploited to achieve this wealth?
  - Zircom 5y ago
    Here's a few articles about them exploiting Asian migrant workers. They're both from this year, I can't imagine that the conditions have gotten better over 80 years. Not to mention that with the current state of market globalization, one could argue that simply by participating in international commerce your benefiting from some group being exploited somewhere in the global supply chain. And as an aside, modern capitalism as it stands right now almost necessitates some group be exploited in order to produce cheap labor/goods for consumption for another wealthier group, and the exploited group is most often a poorer country and the goods/labor are then imported. You're not gonna get very far paying your workforce a living wage to produce things that people making that same living wage need to buy, not with the percentage of profit modern owners/shareholders take right off the top. https://www.firstpost.com/world/in-south-korea-asian-migrant-workers-face-exploitation-at-work-in-absence-of-labour-law-protection-9376311.html https://www.firstpost.com/world/in-south-korea-asian-migrant... https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1001194446/as-workforce-ages-south-korea-increasingly-depends-on-migrant-labor https://www.npr.org/2021/06/02/1001194446/as-workforce-ages-...
    - fastball 5y ago
      One group being wealthier than another group does not automatically make interactions between those two groups "exploitation" / if that is the definition of exploitation that you're using it is practically meaningless.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]