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This is what astounds me the most about the scientific world's response to COVID. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the positive health applicat

This is what astounds me the most about the scientific world's response to COVID. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the positive health applications of a ubiquitous novel virus that most of us are going to get eventually and repeatedly, over and over, year after year, for the rest of all of our lives, and here we are trying to stamp it out as if nothing was at stake. Future generations will look back at our efforts to destroy COVID and will mourn a lost opportunity.

n4r9 5y ago
We're trying to stop millions of deaths in the process.
vimacs2 5y ago
I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not but rest assured, the sociopaths that hoard the IP behind the vaccines have all but guaranteed that there will be plenty of opportunities to study these alleged "positive health applications" at the back of the global south.
- dgut 5y ago
  Ugh. Many global south countries have more vaccinated as a percentage of the population than the US. The reason some countries are having a very low percentage of vaccinated is not IP but lack of organizational will. As an example, dirt-poor Cuba has developed two vaccines in-house and 86% of the population is fully vaccinated.
  - n4r9 5y ago
    Cuba has historically funded healthcare and medical research very well. It has a lot of the infrastructure and organisation in place already compared to other poor countries. Arguably this is what those other countries should have been doing all along. However that level of coordination usually requires a degree of public activity that tends to reduce external private funding from countries like the US. They're in a tricky situation.
    - b112 5y ago
      I think poor coupled with stability allows this. Cuba, regardless of its regime, has been stable for a very long time. This enables projects, funding, etc. But if a civil war, insurrection happens every decade... well, so much for public services. It also helps being an island. Some dudes can't just walk in.
  - rsynnott 5y ago
    Cuba is a middle-income country. Vaccination rate in very poor countries is still mostly poor.
    - dgut 5y ago
      Cuba is only one example. Most of Latin America and East Asia is in the 65-80%. It's first in Africa you find very low numbers, down to 0.2% in the Congo.
- mschuster91 5y ago
  > the sociopaths that hoard the IP behind the vaccines Uhh... what? The Oxford vaccine (better known as AZ) is available for licensing for everyone interested [1], which the Serum Institute of India has done. The problem with vaccine equity is not the patents question (Moderna also has announced to not prosecute any IP violations during the pandemic fwiw), the problem is that many poor nations lack the prerequisites of manufacturing high-quality vaccines: a stable electricity grid, political stability (last thing you want is a bunch of warlords or drug cartels quarreling over a vaccine factory), competent people to staff the factories, in case of mRNA vaccines delivery chains that can keep up with handling the storage requirements of the components... [1]: https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/technologies-available/technology-licensing/expedited-access-covid-19-related-ip/ https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/technologies-available/technolog...
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    > the problem is that many poor nations lack the prerequisites of manufacturing high-quality vaccines At least wrt Moderna (and I think Biontech as well), isn’t the issue also that part of the production process are not patented, but trade-secrets and thus simply not available? I’ve read this multiple times, but so far I have to find a definitive answer (true or false) either way ;)
  - sigmaprimus 5y ago
    >>>Uhh... what? The Oxford vaccine (better known as AZ) is available for licensing for everyone interested. Sure, sure but that is not the whole story[1] and kind of misleading. [1]: https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/ https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine...
iSnow 5y ago
What? The article is about bacteriophages (virii that kill bacteria) and SARS-COV-2 is not one of those.
rsynnott 5y ago
Covid isn't a bacteriophage, it's a human virus.
wonderwonder 5y ago
Did Covid write this? " the positive health applications of a ubiquitous novel virus" what are those positive applications you are referring too? also even if we successfully cured everyone of covid tomorrow its not like we don't have probably thousands of living samples in labs all over the world to refer to.

n4r9 5y ago

We're trying to stop millions of deaths in the process.

vimacs2 5y ago

I'm not sure if this is sarcastic or not but rest assured, the sociopaths that hoard the IP behind the vaccines have all but guaranteed that there will be plenty of opportunities to study these alleged "positive health applications" at the back of the global south.

dgut 5y ago
Ugh. Many global south countries have more vaccinated as a percentage of the population than the US. The reason some countries are having a very low percentage of vaccinated is not IP but lack of organizational will. As an example, dirt-poor Cuba has developed two vaccines in-house and 86% of the population is fully vaccinated.
- n4r9 5y ago
  Cuba has historically funded healthcare and medical research very well. It has a lot of the infrastructure and organisation in place already compared to other poor countries. Arguably this is what those other countries should have been doing all along. However that level of coordination usually requires a degree of public activity that tends to reduce external private funding from countries like the US. They're in a tricky situation.
  - b112 5y ago
    I think poor coupled with stability allows this. Cuba, regardless of its regime, has been stable for a very long time. This enables projects, funding, etc. But if a civil war, insurrection happens every decade... well, so much for public services. It also helps being an island. Some dudes can't just walk in.
- rsynnott 5y ago
  Cuba is a middle-income country. Vaccination rate in very poor countries is still mostly poor.
  - dgut 5y ago
    Cuba is only one example. Most of Latin America and East Asia is in the 65-80%. It's first in Africa you find very low numbers, down to 0.2% in the Congo.
mschuster91 5y ago
> the sociopaths that hoard the IP behind the vaccines Uhh... what? The Oxford vaccine (better known as AZ) is available for licensing for everyone interested [1], which the Serum Institute of India has done. The problem with vaccine equity is not the patents question (Moderna also has announced to not prosecute any IP violations during the pandemic fwiw), the problem is that many poor nations lack the prerequisites of manufacturing high-quality vaccines: a stable electricity grid, political stability (last thing you want is a bunch of warlords or drug cartels quarreling over a vaccine factory), competent people to staff the factories, in case of mRNA vaccines delivery chains that can keep up with handling the storage requirements of the components... [1]: https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/technologies-available/technology-licensing/expedited-access-covid-19-related-ip/ https://innovation.ox.ac.uk/technologies-available/technolog...
- Semaphor 5y ago
  > the problem is that many poor nations lack the prerequisites of manufacturing high-quality vaccines At least wrt Moderna (and I think Biontech as well), isn’t the issue also that part of the production process are not patented, but trade-secrets and thus simply not available? I’ve read this multiple times, but so far I have to find a definitive answer (true or false) either way ;)
- sigmaprimus 5y ago
  >>>Uhh... what? The Oxford vaccine (better known as AZ) is available for licensing for everyone interested. Sure, sure but that is not the whole story[1] and kind of misleading. [1]: https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/ https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine...

iSnow 5y ago

What? The article is about bacteriophages (virii that kill bacteria) and SARS-COV-2 is not one of those.

rsynnott 5y ago

Covid isn't a bacteriophage, it's a human virus.

wonderwonder 5y ago

Did Covid write this? " the positive health applications of a ubiquitous novel virus" what are those positive applications you are referring too? also even if we successfully cured everyone of covid tomorrow its not like we don't have probably thousands of living samples in labs all over the world to refer to.