While there isn’t any doubt that vaccines can be extremely beneficial for humankind, even necessary, the fact of the matter is that the structure of how vaccines are paid for, and which institutions that the money thereby goes to, has a fundamental flaw within it. We read at reuters.com, that “Total global spending on COVID-19 vaccines is projected to reach $157 billion by 2025…”, which is an absolutely staggering amount of money, for just one vaccine. This would, perhaps, be absolutely fine, if the vaccine so being mandated was nearly 100% effective, or was only necessary to apply just one-time, or if those so producing the vaccine, along with the administration thereof, were done almost exclusively on a non-profit basis. Regrettably, in the United States of America, vaccines, are for the most part in the hands of big business, and because there is a profit motive incumbent within those vaccines, it doesn’t therefore take any real stretch of the imagination to understand that big pharmaceutical and bioengineering companies, along with their research and development arms, have a perverse incentive that their vaccine be effective in a general sense, but never to be at 100 percent or nearly 100 percent effective, or else repeat business of billions upon billions of dollars will be lost.
That is to say, the intent of any legitimate pharmaceutical or bioengineering company with scruples should be to provide a vaccine that is as effective as it could conceivably be, with an absolute minimization of side effects, along with it having long lasting efficacy, so done on a basis, as a service to humankind, and if there be a profit motive, that profit should be structured in a manner in which the profit is reasonable, and no more. That may be indeed be the way that it should be, but it certainly isn’t the way that things are. Firstly, the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, are all public entities, with their stock therefore being traded, and of which, therefore, they must answer to Wall Street, their internal Board of Directors, and the stockholders, thereof, of which, these entities all pretty much agree, that growth and corresponding profits, are absolutely mandatory, and are therefore, above all else, the be-all and end-all of the existence of that pharmaceutical company. Secondly, vaccines, in their structure, should ideally be something that is both highly effective as well as being long lasting, as opposed to the COVID-19 or flu vaccines, which necessitate yearly re-visits to get re-vaccinated or to have booster shots, which quite obviously, is a reflection that the vaccine is not nearly as effective as it should be, and quite clearly makes those vaccines and booster shots to become, in essence, a steady and thereby reliable revenue stream for the pharmaceutical or bioengineering industry.
Imagine this, that within a particular pharmaceutical or bioengineering company, a group of genius scientists discover a vaccine for COVID-19 or something of that ilk, which is nearly 100% effective, and requires no additional booster shots, ever; of which, this is so presented to the Board of Directors, as being that miracle vaccine that will materially reduce the harm to humans, as well as basically saving the lives of millions; but will also mean that though there would be a very substantial one-time boost to the profit line, that subsequently there would then be a massive drop-off in revenues and profits of such, soon thereafter. No doubt, as things so currently stand, those genius scientists and that vaccine would be seen as a material threat to the profits and revenues of that company, and thereby this revolutionary discovery would be suppressed, once and for all-time, never to see the light of day.