COVID-19 vaccine
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The only way to definitively eradicate the pandemic is to have a vaccine that can be administered to all inhabitants of the planet... To ensure the availability of the vaccines to all people on the planet almost at the same time, it has to be free from ownership. To do so we intend to make a global pharmaceutical social business operational as soon as possible. ~ Muhammad Yunus
A cooperative approach to developing vaccines is important because developing vaccines is an inherently risky undertaking... Only about 7 percent of vaccines in the early stages of development are successful, and only 17 percent of those that reach trials on humans end up being successful, according to figures compiled by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
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This devastating pandemic, with all its worldwide chaos and horror, has at the same time created a perfect alignment of technology, science, need, and opportunity. The global impact of Covid-19 could change science forever...Let’s Not Waste It, Jane Metcalfe
In case anyone is wondering I strongly support the development and widespread adoption of a covid-19 vaccine and will take it as soon as it is widely available... ~Jimmy Wales
A COVID-19 vaccine is a hypothetical vaccine against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19). Although no vaccine has completed clinical trials, there are multiple efforts in progress to develop such a vaccine.
Quotes[edit]
(alpha by author)
- We have people around the world working as fast as they can to try to develop an effective vaccine against this dangerous disease. That is great — except these people are working in competition, not in collaboration. They all want to be the first to develop a patentable vaccine that will allow them to get very rich if it proves successful... the coronavirus should be yet another lesson as to why there is a better alternative to patent monopolies for financing biomedical research.
- Dean Baker in Patents Are Slowing the Development of a Coronavirus Vaccine, Truthout, (2 March 2020)
- The coronavirus pandemic is a clear instance in which the whole world shares a common interest in developing and distributing a vaccine. This should mean that we have open research, where all findings are posted on the web as quickly as possible, so that they can build on them. Once a vaccine is developed we should want it spread throughout the world as quickly as possible at the lowest possible cost.
- Outbreaks of new viruses, such as the Wuhan Coronavirus, are a constant reminder of the need to invest in research in emerging virus biology and evolution, how they infect and interact with human cells, and ultimately, to identify safe and effective drugs to treat – or vaccines to prevent – serious disease.
- Connor Bamford (2020) cited in "Mystery China pneumonia outbreak likely caused by new human coronavirus" on The Jakarta Post, 18 January 2020.
- Nobel peace laureate Desmond Tutu and actor George Clooney are among more than 100 people who have signed an appeal for COVID-19 vaccines to be declared a global common good and made widely available. The appeal is led by the founder of the microcredit movement Muhammad Yunus, also a Nobel peace prize winner, who said some pharmaceutical companies had declared vaccines would be provided to rich countries in Europe and the United States first. There is currently no vaccine against COVID-19, but more than 100 are in development around the world as drugmakers race to combat the pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 people globally. Yunus said he was also planning to create an open-source company to produce vaccines around the world and was open to discussion with governments and pharmaceutical companies on how to set it up.
- Within days of the first confirmed novel coronavirus case in the United States on 20 January, antivaccine activists were already hinting on Twitter that the virus was a scam—part of a plot to profit from an eventual vaccine... Recent polls have found as few as 50% of people in the United States are committed to receiving a vaccine, with another quarter wavering... In France, 26% said they wouldn’t get a coronavirus vaccine... Even before the pandemic, public health agencies around the world were struggling to counter increasingly sophisticated efforts to turn people against vaccines. With vaccination rates against measles and other infectious diseases falling in some locations, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of 10 major global health threats.
- Even before we knew it was a coronavirus, I said it certainly sounds like a coronavirus-SARS type thing. As soon as it was identified, I called a meeting of top-level people and said, 'Let's start working on a vaccine right now.'
- Anthony Fauci, as quoted in Not his first epidemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci sticks to the facts (March 8, 2020) by Denise Grady, The New York Times.
- The race for a COVID-19 vaccine is setting off a different kind of competition in Washington: Who will get it first?... Trump administration officials have signaled they will take a “tiered approach” to giving out the vaccine when it is ready and said that, depending on the results of clinical trials, high-risk individuals, people with pre-existing health conditions, and front-line health care workers will be prioritized. After those groups, it’s anyone’s guess. “Will it be people at highest risk? Will it be people who are key to spreading and transmission? Will it be politically effective lobby groups? Will it be people who can pay the most for it?” said Barry Bloom, a research professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
- The United States has bought up virtually all stocks of a drug shown to reduce the recovery time of COVID-19 patients... Remdesivir – an anti-viral drug first developed to tackle Ebola – has been approved for use treating coronavirus in the UK and the US after trials suggested it could cut recovery time by around four days... it will charge $2,340 (£1,900) for a typical treatment course for people in the U.S. and other developed countries... Critics in the U.S. attacked the price because taxpayers have funded much of the drug’s development.
- It does raise two very important questions: what is a fair price for a drug, and what is fair access to a drug, and those are common issues but are particularly important in a global crisis like this. That’s part of the fair access question ― the trial that gave the result that allowed Remdesivir to sell their drug wasn’t just done in the U.S. There were patients participating through other European countries, in the U.K. as well, and internationally ― Mexico and other places... And I wonder how they would feel knowing now that the drug is going to have restricted availability in their own country and would they have volunteered for that trial if they had known that?
- The details of the contracts come just days after the Trump administration faced backlash from consumer groups for refusing to require Gilead to charge a reasonable price for its Covid-19 treatment remdesivir. On Monday, as Common Dreams reported, Gilead announced it will charge U.S. hospitals around $3,120 per privately insured patient for a treatment course of remdesivir, which was developed with the help of at least $70.5 million in taxpayer funding. "Allowing Gilead to set the terms during a pandemic represents a colossal failure of leadership by the Trump administration," Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen's Access to Medicines Program, said in a statement Monday. "The U.S. government has authority and a responsibility to steward the technology it helped develop."
- Noting that U.S. taxpayers have contributed billions of dollars to help develop a Covid-19 vaccine, the Vermont senator (Bernie Sanders) asked the panel: "Would you agree with me that after that kind of investment we should make sure that every American, every person in this country, can get a vaccine regardless of their income?" National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci, CDC chief Dr. Robert Redfield, FDA commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn, and Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir, each answered in the affirmative.
- In essence, it (SARS-CoV-2) is a version of SARS that spreads more easily but causes less damage. This indicates that treatments and vaccines developed for SARS should work for the Wuhan virus.
- Ian Jones (2020) cited in "The genetic code of the Wuhan coronavirus shows it’s 80% similar to SARS. New research suggests a potential way to neutralize the virus." on Business Insider Malaysia, 3 February 2020.
- If everything moves smoothly, it takes 3-6 weeks to get to the point where you can start testing (the vaccine to treat SARS-CoV-2), then you look to see if they can raise an immune response, normally in an animal. You won't start to get human studies until about the beginning of the summer, probably July (2020). But, it's a bit of a moveable feast.
- Paul Kellam cited in "Coronavirus v SARS: How similar are the outbreaks?" on Sky News, (4 February 2020)
- KEI (Knowledge Ecology International) has (obtained) a number of outstanding requests under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for contracts related to biomedical innovations to control or treat the COVID-19 pandemic... Federal agencies, including the DOD, BARDA and the NIH, are using Other Transactions Authority to limit or eliminate the government’s rights in inventions and data that were funded by taxpayers.
- The effort to secure widespread distribution of effective vaccines is turning out to be a major test of multilateralism in an era when countries, or regions, are pursuing their own remedies. The United States, which during previous pandemics used its influence to galvanize international responses, has largely abdicated the role it played in fighting Ebola, HIV/AIDS, and malaria... Rather than see wealthy countries snap up limited supplies of vaccines for their own countries, health experts say it would be more effective to ensure that vulnerable populations worldwide can get the vaccine to prevent future resurgences of the pandemic.
- A cooperative approach to developing vaccines is important because developing vaccines is an inherently risky undertaking, with only a tiny fraction of preliminary vaccine candidates eventually proving successful in human trials. Only about 7 percent of vaccines in the early stages of development are successful, and only 17 percent of those that reach trials on humans end up being successful, according to figures compiled by GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.
- Polls show that the American people are extremely worried about contracting the virus. However, the government has a much bigger concern: that if they find a COVID-19 vaccine, China will copy it and distribute it for free. To many, it will not be immediately clear why it would be a problem for a manufacturing superpower, home to 1.4 billion people, to inoculate itself and others. But to the White House, this would be “stealing” a potential American innovation.
- In the early 1950s, American scientist Jonas Salk pioneered a world-changing vaccine against polio, a deadly disease that tens of thousands of Americans contracted annually. Instead of patenting it and making a fortune, he insisted that his invention belonged to all of humanity. By 1994, polio was eradicated in North America. Yet 70 years later, the logic of capitalism dictates that where... there are enormous profits to be made, and anyone acting outside that system to reproduce a vaccine is not acting responsibly, but “stealing.”
- Today we envision a vaccine within two years, and for frontline health care workers, probably much sooner. It’s remarkable how fast science can happen when everyone is focused on the same problem. This devastating pandemic, with all its worldwide chaos and horror, has at the same time created a perfect alignment of technology, science, need, and opportunity. The global impact of Covid-19 could change science forever.
- This vaccine will be needed by 8 billion people. What happens to poor countries who cannot afford to pay the prices that they'll be charging in the rich countries? Happy to sign, pledge your support http://vaccinecommongood.org
- Paul Polman, Twitter (3 July 2020)
- In six months, it's impossible to produce a vaccine against the (COVID-19) coronavirus. It takes a year to develop a vaccine. As for Thailand, we have no staff, no people who are experts in this field. But we expect that China will be able to develop a vaccine within one year.
- Yong Poovorawan (2020) cited in "Virologist: Coronavirus vaccine could take about a year" on Bangkok Post, 30 January 2020.
- The only way to contain the coronavirus pandemic is to have COVID-19 vaccines free from commercial interests, Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus told Arab News in an exclusive interview, as over 100 statesmen, academics, activists and religious leaders joined his campaign to declare coronavirus vaccines a global common good...
- The “Declare COVID-19 Vaccine a Global Common Good Now” campaign launched by Yunus on Sunday has already gained the support of 19 Nobel Prize laureates... As of Friday (3 July 2020), 112 former presidents, prime ministers, business leaders, artists and social activists joined his mission. Everyone can support the initiative through the website www.vaccinecommongood.org.
- A vaccine for the coronavirus is still being developed and that the main treatment right now is supportive care.
- Chen Shih-chung (2020) cited in "Taiwan coronavirus patients in good condition: CDC" on Taiwan News, 2 February 2020.
- In case anyone is wondering I strongly support the development and widespread adoption of a covid-19 vaccine and will take it as soon as it is widely available... I don't think I should be in the first wave to take it as that should be people more vulnerable or more likely to be spreaders... I think that's right. [replying to comment: "it should go to health care workers first"]. I'm not an expert. I just know that I'm healthy and safe at home, so it will be more helpful for others to go first. But I'm eager to take it!
- Jimmy Wales Twitter (19 and 20 May 2020)
- Take a look at this: http://vaccinecommongood.org
- Jimmy Wales, Twitter (3 July 2020)
- China will strengthen international cooperation in future COVID-19 clinical vaccine trials, building on earlier collaboration in vaccine development, the science and technology minister said on Sunday. President Xi Jinping vowed last month... that vaccines China’s develops will become a “global public good” .... and it will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.
- What happens to the rest of the world? It’s as if the rest of the world will be forgotten... This is a vaccine that is needed by 8 billion people. What happens to poor people? What happens to poor countries who cannot afford to pay the prices that they’ll be charging in the rich countries? With social business, shareholders don’t want to make any profit out of it so no dividend is taken from the company and we can reduce the cost and produce anywhere.
- I believe that, ultimately, the only way to definitively eradicate the pandemic is to have a vaccine that can be administered to all inhabitants of the planet... The effectiveness of the upcoming vaccination campaign will depend on its universality. To ensure the availability of the vaccines to all people on the planet almost at the same time, it has to be free from ownership... It has to be freed from commercial interest.
See also[edit]
- Cooperation
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Coronavirus recession
- COVID-19 testing
- Disease X
- Evacuations related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Hydroxychloroquine
- Shortages related to the COVID-19 pandemic
- Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic
