Moderna’s price hike should be a crime. Tyre Nichols’ murderers will learn of two justice systems. The Santiago Declaration envisions the end of the neoliberalism death spiral.
Moderna evil COVID vaccine hike.
Moderna COVID Vaccine hike is evil.
The technology used to develop the Moderna vaccine was developed primarily with taxpayer dollars over decades. Now they want to hike prices. The following report from KHN was clear.
The vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, which are likely to be the first to win FDA approval, in particular, rely heavily on two fundamental discoveries that emerged from federally funded research: the viral protein designed by Graham and his colleagues, and the concept of RNA modification, first developed by Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó at the University of Pennsylvania. In fact, Moderna’s founders in 2010 named the company after this concept: “Modified” + “RNA” = Moderna, according to co-founder Robert Langer.
“This is the people’s vaccine,” said corporate critic Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program. “Federal scientists helped invent it and taxpayers are funding its development. … It should belong to humanity.”
Moderna, through spokesperson Ray Jordan, acknowledged its partnership with NIH throughout the COVID-19 development process and earlier.
COVID is a vicious virus. Everybody who wants a vaccine should get one. It is a national security issue. So a vaccine developed from taxpayer dollars and an excellent infrastructure should be paid for by our government just like our military is. More importantly, parasitic corporations should not profit from something necessary for national security.
It costs $2.85 to manufacture the COVID vaccine. Moderna sold it to the government for $16. They sold it to the public for $26. Now they are proposing selling it to the public for $130. This is proof positive that healthcare does not belong in the for-profit domain. The inability of people to pay and an evil corporation profiting off illness or preventing illnesses that kill and are highly contagious shows an inhumane and soulless system.
Why Memphis acted so fast on Nichols’ murder?
The five police officers immediately fired and charged with murdering Tyre Nichols are about to learn a lesson. They will be privy to the dual justice systems most criminal and social justice activists have been fighting to eradicate.
There were no chants of blue lives matter. There was no wait for all the data to be reviewed. Additional officers that were complicit so far have not been charged.
These officers were caught on the few cameras that terrorized a young man. But that is the modus operandi of the policing system in America. Many police officers see themselves as some enforcer. They get their kicks from dominating others. Go into any minority or poor area, and they would tell you that the beatings you saw are standard procedure, mostly not videoed. I just interviewed Chivas Watson a few weeks ago when he was beaten and got his finger broken by a black police officer in Harris county.
Defunding the police was a moniker ripe for the Right Wing to misconstrue. But reforming the police by removing all but the duties where a gun is necessary will save lives and use their oversized bravado where it is needed.
How to neuter neoliberalism
The Santiago Declaration is out. It envisions the end of neoliberalism’s death spiral.
From 29th November to 2nd December over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future.
We are at a critical juncture. At a time when the world faces a series of crises, from the environmental emergency to hunger and deepening inequalities, increasing armed conflicts, pandemics, rising extremism, and escalating inflation, a collective response is growing. A large movement is building and concrete solutions are emerging to counter the dominant paradigm of growth, privatisation and commodification.
Hundreds of organisations across socio-economic justice and public services sectors, from education and health services, to care, energy, food, housing, water, transportation and social protection, are coming together to address the harmful effects of commercialising public services, to reclaim democratic public control, and to reimagine a truly equal and human rights oriented economy that works for people and the planet. We demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.
The document is a high-level roadmap to the change we must have to save the world from the destructive nature of neoliberalism.
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