Thread by @MMKavanagh

Argument that compelling knowledge sharing= theft=no future innovation simply not credible in context of #COVID19. Asks huge leaps of imagination.
1st: the imagination here is that a GLOBAL monopoly is required to incentivize science. India, SAfrica, US must be one monopoly...

https://twitter.com/gregggonsalves/status/1397147430265802756

2nd: universities, which have done much of research leading to these vaccines, will stop accepting public funds to research vaccines and such. Not credible.

3rd: $€£ billions of direct funding + adv-market-commit hasn't been what incentivized development of these vaccines? not credible. #COVID19 is the very best example of public-sector funding driving development on a clear, urgent outbreak. US, UK, EU funding drove dev. As planned

4th: Start-ups will not take public funding to work on priority health issues. Moderna, BioNTech, would not have succeeded without public-sector support. Hardly credibly that w/o global monopoly they would not have been built? That is belied by all reporting on these companies.

4 a: Let's look at innovators. Driven by global monopoly? Pfizer CEO said no "Ugur is a very, very unique individual.He cares only about science.Discussing business is not his cup of tea. He doesn’t like it at all. He’s a scientist and a man of principles"
nytimes.com/2020/11/10/bus…

4b. "For many scientists, a new discovery is followed by a plan to make money, to form a company and get a patent. But not for Dr. Kariko. “That’s the furthest thing from Kate’s mind.” So, um, not about global monopolies...
nytimes.com/2021/04/08/hea…

5. Then we are asked to believe big companies like Pfizer or AZ will refuse to commercialize products when all the risk has been removed via public funding, public procurement, and adv-commitments unless they get a global monopoly? Billions in guaranteed orders not enough.

6th: we're asked to believe that the same system of IP should be relevant for pandemics as for baldness drugs. That this is the best, and indeed the only, way forward.

...none of these arguments hold up when examined closely. They are straw-arguments alluding to a grand innovation system, incomprehensible to non-experts, that easily crumbles under government intervention.
Truth: Monopolies are not a good tool for pandemics. #COVID19