{"id":25919,"date":"2021-02-04T08:56:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T08:56:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=132743"},"modified":"2021-02-04T08:56:43","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T08:56:43","slug":"the-so-called-moderna-vaccine-is-a-publicly-funded-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/04\/the-so-called-moderna-vaccine-is-a-publicly-funded-miracle\/","title":{"rendered":"The So-Called Moderna Vaccine Is a Publicly Funded Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/a>\n
\"\"

Photograph Source: Photographer: Airman 1st Class Anna Nolte Post-production: Zacharie Grossen – Public Domain<\/p><\/div>\n

The so-called \u201cModerna\u201d vaccine is a miracle of science. It is\u00a0nearly 100 percent<\/a>\u00a0effective at preventing serious illness and death. By vaccinating the world, we can end the COVID-19 pandemic and save millions of lives.<\/p>\n

The only problem? We don\u2019t have nearly enough doses. But there\u2019s a solution: If the Biden administration allowed generic manufacturers, not just Moderna, to manufacture the vaccine at scale, the United States would no longer suffer from a vaccine shortage.<\/p>\n

This step is entirely appropriate, because the \u201cModerna\u201d vaccine wasn\u2019t developed by Moderna. The research and development of the vaccine were\u00a0paid for<\/a>\u00a0by our U.S. taxpayer dollars, to the tune of $2.5 billion. In fact, Dolly Parton put more money into the vaccine than the company it is named after when she donated $1 million to the effort.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t Modern\u2019s vaccine. It is the people\u2019s vaccine, and it\u2019s time for the law to reflect that.<\/p>\n

Currently, Moderna has a government-granted monopoly on the vaccine. That means that they are the only company allowed to manufacture it. The only reason there is a shortage of vaccines is that we allow this one company to create that shortage. It is a nonsensical and corrupt situation.<\/p>\n

That needs to change immediately.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need for the Biden administration to grant generic licensing on every vaccine, although legally they certainly could. Pfizer, and any other vaccines like Johnson & Johnson that ultimately get approved by the FDA, can keep their monopolies. But we need a public option, and that\u2019s the so-called Moderna vaccine that we funded with our public dollars.<\/p>\n

Just vaccinating everyone in the United States isn\u2019t good enough. Vaccinating the entire world is both a moral imperative and necessary to end the pandemic. There\u2019s no other way to produce vaccines at the scale we need.<\/p>\n

Biden administration officials say that they are \u201cactively exploring<\/a>\u201d using the Defense Production Act to license the vaccine to generic manufacturers. That is encouraging, but with the new and more contagious COVID-19 variants quickly gaining steam, time is of the essence.<\/p>\n

We could face another global shutdown from a new vaccine-resistant variant of the virus unless we successfully arrest the pandemic with an effective vaccine today.<\/p>\n

The government should never have granted Moderna a monopoly over our vaccine. The best time to license the people\u2019s vaccine to generic manufacturers was months ago. The second best time is right now.<\/p>\n

This article was produced by\u00a0<\/em>Economy for All<\/em><\/a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.<\/em><\/p>\n

The post The So-Called Moderna Vaccine Is a Publicly Funded Miracle<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The so-called \u201cModerna\u201d vaccine is a miracle of science. It is\u00a0nearly 100 percent\u00a0effective at preventing serious illness and death. By vaccinating the world, we can end the COVID-19 pandemic and save millions of lives. The only problem? We don\u2019t have nearly enough doses. But there\u2019s a solution: If the Biden administration allowed generic manufacturers, not More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The So-Called Moderna Vaccine Is a Publicly Funded Miracle<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1754,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25920,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25919\/revisions\/25920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}