Thread by @NikoLusiani

A COVID-19 vaccine - once approved - will be the currency of life and death.

Who gets it, and when, will determine the depth and longevity of this plague.

Today, I pose a question to CEO Alex Gorsky of @JNJNews, which has announced progress in developing a vaccine THREAD 1/

First some brief background. Taxpayers like you and me have already contributed millions to developing this vaccine.

The US gov’t already gave JNJ nearly half a billion dollars in taxpayer funding to develop a vaccine. 2/

forbes.com/sites/thomasbr…

JNJ also received an est. $2.5 B in tax cuts in 2018 from the Trump tax cuts, according to us @OxfamAmerica. This taxpayer money could have been used to build our public health infrastructure, & beef up public innovation on coronavirus prevention. 3/
oxfamamerica.org/explore/resear…

Committing to not profit off any taxpayer-financed COVID-19 vaccine, as @JNJNews has done, is a great overture.

Yet by its own estimates, JNJ can only supply this vaccine to a fraction of the world’s population by the end of 2021. 4/
jnj.com/johnson-johnso…

This means - quite literally - deadly rationing. Gov’ts have a key role to produce & allocate equitably, yet comps like JNJ have a resp allow others the right to produce and allocate these precious health resources. This is no time for patent-hoarding. 5/

ft.com/content/b69afd…

We’re living an historical time, which demands sacrifice.

Who will become the next Jonas Salk?

When asked who owned the patent to the polio vaccine he developed: “The people I’d say...Could you patent the sun?” 6/

Jonas Salk left $ billions on the table so we could all be rid of polio. Choosing not to enrich himself to make others well. 7/

forbes.com/sites/quora/20…

So, here's my question to @JNJNews CEO this AM at its virtual shareholder meeting:

Will you commit to openly licensing the vaccine technology & sharing manufacturing know-how, so that various countries & comps can together rapidly scale-up production to meet worldwide demand? 8/

We’re all in this together. Let’s show it. The full presentation of the question here. Stay tuned to see how @JNJNews responds. #nopandemicprofiteering 9/

And for more details on the fight to make any COVID-19 vaccine a global public good, follow
@zainrizvi @SharonannMSF @DavidP4AD @Maybarduk @azzimomen @stephsterlingdc @jamie_love @peopleb4pharma @burcuno and so many more 10/

And of course we cannot forget the amazing investors pushing for equitable and accessible COVID vaccines including @ICCRonline

Mr. Gorsky & @JNJNews received our q & reiterated already-published commitments. Will work w/ partners to make vaccine widely avlbl. Did not (yet) commit to openly license vaccine technology & share manuf know-how.

The fight to make any vaccine a global public good continues!