Thread by @adamjohnsonCHI

name the “others” opposed to the waiver! Someone name them, it’s always mysterious anonymous advisors nytimes.com/2021/05/03/us/…

after all the bullshit about how the global south doesn’t have “capacity”, and the TRIPS waiver is a “side show” and a “distraction” and it’s really “complex” and how the real problem is “corruption” in poor countries this is all the opposition to patent suspensions comes down to

what's noteworthy is how little Big Pharma's talking points have changed. When 39 drugmakers sued South Africa in 1998 for manufacturing unsanctioned generic AIDS drugs, they, like today, argued IP was a non sequitur and that the real issue was capacity in poor countries.

A 2000 episode of The West Wing was even kind enough to turn this racist and cruel Pharma talking point into a dramatic plot beat

TOBY: africans cannot tell time
[cue dramatic music]
JOSH: I was wrong to think cheap AIDS medication was a good idea

[cut to All State commercial]

in 2001, some AIDS activists claimed the Bush admin, who mimicked the "Africans can't tell time" line were, in fact, simply repeating what they heard on The West Wing

Sadly I’m 100% sure that’s what happened. I mean, it’s not like the Bush officials wouldn’t have been super racist otherwise but im 100% sure they saw the stupid West Wing episode and were like “oh that’s good, that’s a great line to justify defending pharmaceutical giants”

Andrew “Bell Curve” Sullivan also used the “Africans can’t tell time” argument around that same time while secretly shilling for a Pharma lobbying group newrepublic.com/article/162000…