Mark Small

Alex Azar, II, HHS Sec’y, asked if administration could guarantee corona virus vaccine would B affordable 2 all: I’m saying we would want 2 work 2 make it affordable but we can’t control that price because we need private sector 2 invest ... price controls don’t get us there 1/10

This is “free market” theory whipped into absurd warp drive: only those who can afford a vaccine will have access to it. Even if HHS or dt or whomever pulls back and says all will have access and price will not be a bar, the mindset this reflects is sick. 2/10

Dr. Jonas Salk refused to seek a patent on his vaccine for polio. He thought to do so was wrong. Of course, that was back during President Eisenhower’s administration. The GOP was not steroid-driven to gouge profits for corporate backers it seems. 3/10

Another important point: in all likelihood, most other countries will make vaccines available for free or at negligible price to their people - as is the case with most pharmaceutical drugs developed and sold by U.S. pharma. 4/10

As Professor Sheila Suess Kennedy recently noted, Big Pharma spends more on PR than on R & D. So even the premise - we have to pay higher prices to ensure vaccines are developed - is without validity. 5/10