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Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
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28 Apr, 6 tweets, 3 min read
momentum against vaccine inequality, like all social outrages, is being channeled away from actually useful things like freeing patents and materials from the grip of US corporations into dopey Gates-funded celebrity "charity" framework.
a very useful thing Hollywood celebrities could do now more than anything is openly condemn the MPAA from lobbying against the Intellectual Property waiver that would free up vaccine production theintercept.com/2021/04/27/cov…
Global Citizen's #VaxLive is a transparent Gates-funded bullshit distraction in *direct response* to the increase effort to push through a TRIPSwaiver. More patronizing charity framework that will do nothing to address the underlying problem of vaccine apartheid.
The funds raised for VaxLive are going to COVAX, a Gates-backed project designed to maintain the global IP enforcement regime while still running through the motions of caring about the global poor that has been an abject failure. Gates himself could fund...
way more than could ever be raised by these corporations or credulous celebrities so why have a fundraising concert? What’s the point? Gates could pump a billion more in in a second and it’d be a rounding error for him. It’s just PR laundering govts & corps opposing TRIPS waiver

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More from @adamjohnsonNYC

Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
30 Apr
Glowing press release for the gambling industry & feckless govt leaders who refuse to adequately raise taxes on the rich. Just once it’d be useful for reporters to note ANY potential downsides to states’ rush to pass regressive taxes they mask as “gaming” nbcchicago.com/news/local/chi…
In addition to preying on the poor and elderly, casinos don’t even succeed based on their own criteria of generating revenue for “cash strapped states”. It’s a race to the bottom budget gimmick that’s entirely cannibalistic and increasingly losing money features.propublica.org/the-bad-bet/ho…
AP piece has not a single critical word, nothing but quotes from gambling industry hacks and politicians funded by gambling industry hacks. The only tension in the story is “how much free money and jobs will the state generate at no risk or cost”!!
Read 4 tweets
Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
29 Apr
Your employer VICE just entered into a media partnership with the Saudi regime’s soft power arm SMRG (which it had previously done in 2017).

If VICE did this with Iran or China there would be widespread outrage, but because it’s a US ally it’s met with a shrug ImageImage
It’s the exact same partnership criticized here. Same soft power arm, same deal VICE has previously “reevaluated” after MBS chopped up a regime critic. Completely disingenuous to act like this is ethical theguardian.com/world/2018/oct…
I can’t believe we got the “Houthis are no angels” line! Because is definitely something anti war activists have ever argued
Read 4 tweets
Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
29 Apr
VICE publishes egregious pro Saudi propaganda. By sheer coincidence just this month they opened up a new office in Riyadh and began a partnership with Saudi Research & Marketing Group, long considered a soft power arm of the Saudi regime.

hollywoodreporter.com/news/vice-medi…
“[VICE had] previously worked with SRMG, known to have close links with the Saudi government (its former chairman Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud left to become Saudi Culture Minister). The two teamed on a series of mini-documentaries aimed at promoting Saudi Arabia internationally”
“However, in late 2018 Vice said this contract was under review in the wake of the global scandal that erupted following the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.”
Read 7 tweets
Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
27 Apr
Here’s @ashishkjha on Ezra Klein’s NYT podcast last month dismissing the TRIPSwaiver without any disclosure that Jha is a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge, a firm that represents Pfizer on intellectual property issues. nytimes.com/2021/03/12/pod… Image
Shouldn’t these conflicts be disclosed? Simply introducing Jha as “dean of Brown University School of Public Health” ignores his corporate ties which are extremely relevant when asserting intellectual property rights are a nonissue.
Jha even name checks Merck in the interview, whose production he insists can not be interfered with by loosening property rights. Merck is also a client of Albright Stonebridge. Image
Read 4 tweets
Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
26 Apr
TRIPSwaiver will likely never be approved by leaders in EU/US because it would too radically alter the colonial relations propped up by the WTO, the rush therefore is to mass produce “Hyundai” vaccines for the global poor using the “charity” route
I believe those working on this route believe IP waivers are virtually impossible so why bother but this of course becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and it’s notable they’re almost all funded by IP-above-all-else Bill Gates
It’s more effective PR and diplomacy wise for the US to “donate” vaccines when countries are lit on fire than to do what activists asked for months ago which is waive IP and force US pharmaceuticals to share tech and materials under the threat of cutting off public funding
Read 8 tweets
Adam H. Johnson Profile picture
26 Apr
more shadow boxing. All perfectly fine ideas but note the completely lack of #TRIPSwaiver in the solutions. The op-ed's author, Ashish Jha, is a Senior Advisor at Albright Stonebridge whose clients include Pfizer and the Gates Foundation. Probably should have been disclosed.
international consultancy firms are influence laundromats and should be disclosed in bios imo
"[Abright Stonebridge], which represents Pfizer, specializes in helping large corporations understand and influence international trade policy, including on intellectual property." theintercept.com/2021/03/24/cov…
Read 4 tweets

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