> Science + technology + capitalism is a hugely potent combination
Wait till you see what science + technology - capitalism can achieve!
But more seriously, we're also seeing the problems of capitalism here. Apart from the problems with its price, especially for the third world, I also think it's important to realize that the main motivation for vaccine skepticism is capitalism and the bad incentives it creates for companies. People understand that it's in any of these companies' best interest to lie about effectiveness and safety of these vaccines, and that they have more than enough money to hide any potential wrong doing for a long time.
I am NOT an anti-vaxxer. I take flu shots every year, and I will get this vaccine as well as soon as I am offered the chance (I'm neither at risk nor working in a crucial industry). But the pharmaceutical industry deserves its reputation to some extent, and it is mostly capitalism's fault that we have these huge behemoths that can act with impunity.
There's no capitalism going on here. I have parents over 70 in the EU, I would gladly pay $5000 per person to get them vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine (Pfeiser or Moderna), but people under 60 are being vaccinated in Israel right now for free.
Vaccination right now is completely political, governments took over control instead of just regulating safety and efficiency of the vaccines.
There is no market for the vaccine at the consumer level, but the vaccine is still bought and sold in a capitalist market, with states as buyers. Governments that could afford this have done what they can for their populations, that's great, but many countries were unable to access the initial doses and are not allowed to manufacture the vaccine themselves.
The situation has improved since the beginning of the year, and some companies are better than others at supporting public health.
You create the formula and make it public so that it can be produced easily. Then, many manufacturers, ranging from generic drug manufacturers to public health institutes can produce the drug at cost, even in third world countries.
It's a complex product (the AstraZeneca vaccine is a virus that stimulates the body to produce a protein that is present on SARS-CoV2). Maybe sharing the IP more widely would have been the better thing to do, but it wouldn't have resulted in it being 'produced easily'.
True, 'produced easily' was an overstatement. Still, I doubt AZ is the only company with the know-how and equipment required to produce such a vaccine (and it's also likely that some of the know-how is itself a protected secret or patent of AZ, which just throws the ball further down the line).
A sincere question here. There may be many positive answers that I don’t know about. Which non-capitalist ventures have done as good a job as capitalist ones at creating drugs?
The best examples would be many vaccines - the polio vaccine, the flu vaccine, the BCG vaccine for TB, the rabies vaccine , the measles vaccine (not the modern MMR - which was created at Merck - but the older measles-only vaccine) and others. Paracetamol/acetaminophen is a very common drug that was also developed in a University setting.
The Pasteur Institute in France is a major source of non-corporate medical research, at least historically. There are similar institutes in many countries which produce both research and actually manufacture drugs to be used in public health campaigns directly.
With respect, those are all half a century ago. Corporate pharmaceutical companies are treating out hundreds of new solutions a year. Again, I feel that system is fairly corrupt and mismanaged. I’m not trying to defend it. But practically speaking it seems to be doing an immensely better job these days than government sectors.
Yes, but that is by design - the state has retreated or stagnated in this space, preferring to let companies drive research and reap profits. We can't then be surprised that the companies are out-competing the state.
Not to mention that one example I forgot about is exactly the Oxford/AZ vaccine - the vaccine itself was developed by a (private, true) university, not a pharmaceutical company.
I’m not sure why your answer was downvoted. I certainly gave it an upvote. However, it’s still feels to me like the private sector is outperforming the public sector by massive massive amounts. And it kind of makes sense, because here in the USA it can easily cost $1 billion to get through testing alone.
Wait till you see what science + technology - capitalism can achieve!
But more seriously, we're also seeing the problems of capitalism here. Apart from the problems with its price, especially for the third world, I also think it's important to realize that the main motivation for vaccine skepticism is capitalism and the bad incentives it creates for companies. People understand that it's in any of these companies' best interest to lie about effectiveness and safety of these vaccines, and that they have more than enough money to hide any potential wrong doing for a long time.
I am NOT an anti-vaxxer. I take flu shots every year, and I will get this vaccine as well as soon as I am offered the chance (I'm neither at risk nor working in a crucial industry). But the pharmaceutical industry deserves its reputation to some extent, and it is mostly capitalism's fault that we have these huge behemoths that can act with impunity.