Thread by @WalkerBragman

Anti-vaxxers often claim there’s a conspiracy to vaccinate everyone. The opposite is true.

Pfizer and Moderna have been fighting efforts at the WTO to share their vaccine IP with the world — between that and drug pricing, it’s their top priority right now.

Doses expiring before they get into people’s arms works out just fine for these companies bc governments will need to buy more jabs.

Global vaccine apartheid works for them too bc new variants emerging means more vaccines — potentially even new vaccines — will be needed.

We know these companies have prioritized wealthy nations that can afford their products.

Like, this stuff is easily verifiable.

Not getting the vaccine —> doses expiring —> U.S. buys/holds more doses —> slower global vaccination efforts —> new mutations —> new demand for research/jabs/boosters —> pharma profits.

When you’re so anti-pharma, you’re boosting its bottom line.

Also, a word about Bill Gates:

Many of these conspiracy theories involve Gates. But the dude actually spent much of the pandemic fighting to preserve vaccine patents, which inhibit global vaccination efforts.

wired.com/story/opinion-…

If you ever want to verify what a company’s priorities are, use the federal lobbying database to look at their disclosures. It’s not totally user friendly and the disclosures can be vague, but you can still get a really good idea of what a company wants:

lda.senate.gov/filings/public…

Here’s what’s happening globally:

India and South Africa have proposed a TRIPS waiver at the WTO to waive the IP for vaccines, diagnostics, etc.

Despite Biden pledging support for waiving vaccine patents, the US, along with EU, UK, and Switzerland is holding up the process.