How to ensure that there won't be another vaccine for the next pandemic

SFGbob

The Biden administration said Wednesday they would support waiving patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, after weeks of pressure from the international community as India and other countries face brutal surges in virus cases.

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Ambassador Katherine Tai, the United States trade representative, said in a statement Wednesday afternoon announcing the administration’s position.

The only reason we have an effective vaccine is because of the free market and capitalism. This is nothing short of state sponsored theft.

Bob_C

Mixed reactions here, in one sense you want to reward the technology and as you allude to they won’t be incentivized to do it again if you take away the annuity revenue stream.

But there is a humanitarian aspect to all of this too, and considering the researchers essentially got paid up front for finding something or not makes this not quite a true free market situation.

My main problem with the vaccine isn’t the vaccine itself, but that we as a society basically quit trying to live with the virus and sat back and waited for technology. Next one will have the same reaction from government.

Sledog

They will just pay off the patent holders with our tax money after they lose the law suit.

creepycoug

Bob_C said:

Mixed reactions here, in one sense you want to reward the technology and as you allude to they won’t be incentivized to do it again if you take away the annuity revenue stream.

But there is a humanitarian aspect to all of this too, and considering the researchers essentially got paid up front for finding something or not makes this not quite a true free market situation.

My main problem with the vaccine isn’t the vaccine itself, but that we as a society basically quit trying to live with the virus and sat back and waited for technology. Next one will have the same reaction from government.

It's fairly easy. There is no humanitarian aspect to it when for-profit organizations are involved. If individual scientists discover something and want to make it widely available (like the discovery of insulin), then that's great and we applaud it.

Organizations are what they are. They invest capital for a very clear reason. If we remove that reason, they stop doing it and boom! We don't have a vaccine about which to even have this discussion. Yeah, they were paid up front; but they work on other things and R&D and other resources were entirely diverted to this one thing. You basically asked them to shut down their other work to fix this problem, and they expected to benefit.

I'm not a virologist nor a virus historian; but it seems this isn't the first time we haven't just decided to sit back, 'live with it' and hope for the best. Anecdotally, for whatever that's worth, this virus caused problems in my wider social circles than any flu during my lifetime. It's a pernicious little mother fucker.

I for one am proud and find comfort in the fact that, once again, the US system of profit making, albeit always benefiting from public funding of research at the university level (and beyond), has come up with three fucking varieties of vaccine to at least keep a lid on this thing.

And now we want to fuck the very system that got us here? Fuck me. Like I said last night: good luck the rest of the way.

WestlinnDuck

creepycoug said:

Bob_C said:

Mixed reactions here, in one sense you want to reward the technology and as you allude to they won’t be incentivized to do it again if you take away the annuity revenue stream.

But there is a humanitarian aspect to all of this too, and considering the researchers essentially got paid up front for finding something or not makes this not quite a true free market situation.

My main problem with the vaccine isn’t the vaccine itself, but that we as a society basically quit trying to live with the virus and sat back and waited for technology. Next one will have the same reaction from government.

It's fairly easy. There is no humanitarian aspect to it when for-profit organizations are involved. If individual scientists discover something and want to make it widely available (like the discovery of insulin), then that's great and we applaud it.

Organizations are what they are. They invest capital for a very clear reason. If we remove that reason, they stop doing it and boom! We don't have a vaccine about which to even have this discussion. Yeah, they were paid up front; but they work on other things and R&D and other resources were entirely diverted to this one thing. You basically asked them to shut down their other work to fix this problem, and they expected to benefit.

I'm not a virologist nor a virus historian; but it seems this isn't the first time we haven't just decided to sit back, 'live with it' and hope for the best. Anecdotally, for whatever that's worth, this virus caused problems in my wider social circles than any flu during my lifetime. It's a pernicious little mother fucker.

I for one am proud and find comfort in the fact that, once again, the US system of profit making, albeit always benefiting from public funding of research at the university level (and beyond), has come up with three fucking varieties of vaccine to at least keep a lid on this thing.

And now we want to fuck the very system that got us here? Fuck me. Like I said last night: good luck the rest of the way.

Well said. One more thing, phuck the chicoms. Last thing I want is having the chicoms stealing the US IP on the vaccines. I'd ban any use of chicom manufactured chicom crud vaccines in the US.

HustlinOwl

I don't feel sorry for any of these manufacturers. They're making a killing and receiving an enormous amount of free publicity.

doogie

Dumb as a fucking stump

HustlinOwl

doogie said:

Dumb as a fucking stump

Which part?

RaceBannon

All of it?

WestlinnDuck

HustlinOwl said:

doogie said:

Dumb as a fucking stump

Which part?

Dude61

Under Operation Warp Speed, the US government funded almost $11 billion to 8 companies to develop a vaccine. One could argue it is within the governments right to waive patent protection, but I don't know what was agreed upon between the companies and the government.

oregonblitzkrieg

Dude61 said:

Under Operation Warped Speed, the US government bilked almost $11 billion from Rothschild Central Bank Slaves (taxpayers) to give to 8 front companies to rollout a bioweapon disguised as a vaccine that had already been developed years earlier. One could argue it is within the governments right to waive life and liberty, but I don't know what was agreed upon between the companies and the government.