If It’s Up to Capitalism, Covid Will Never Go Away

[rcjordan]

There's Far More Money to Be Made By Letting Covid Linger — Than There Is in Eradicating It

https://eand.co/if-its-up-to-capitalism-covid-will-never-go-away-c2459561fab0


Sounds ludicrous, right?  Well, not so fast....  Let me pair that with a 2108 Goldman Sachs research report.

Goldman asks: 'Is curing patients a sustainable business model?'

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/goldman-asks-is-curing-patients-a-sustainable-business-model.html

[littleman]

That first article is a bit overly bleak even for me.  The science is pointing to outdoor transmission being very unlikely; so under some circumstances not wearing a mask isn't such a selfish act.   I agree that we are likely to have resurgence and the need to have periodic boosters into the future -- this would likely still happen even with the best of human intentions.  Biden did make an effort to push for open patents on the vaccines but there was pushback.  Some were saying that quality control would be impossible if the patent was lifted -- I don't know if this is true or not.

Along the line of this article, the head of the WHO said that it was a perversion to vaccinate children in the West while the developing world is starving for vaccine.  To me this is sort of like saying we shouldn't have a space program when people need school books.  The problem with that logic is that it isn't an if/or situation.  The act of vaccinating my child isn't taking a vaccine away from an elderly person in Nepal.  There are many systemic reasons why Nepal is struggling.  It is all our self-interest to overcome those challenges and I hope we continue to make efforts to vaccinate people in developing countries.  Diverting say 1% of each country's military budget to pay for global vaccinations would probably be plenty of money to pay for it all and would have an excellent ROI.