I really like Cloud 500’s posts because they argue for freedom.
That might sound strange since I signed up for the vaccine like 10 minutes after it opened up for my age range.
But I am being denied a freedom right now. It is the right for me to purchase a third dose of the vaccine.
The data from Pfizer and Israel is pretty convincing that my best protection from the Delta variant is a third dose. And no, the Pfizer researchers are not evil corporate folks like you see in movies produced by left-wingers. They are good people trying to save the world. No one here complains about the other wonder drug, Viagra..
But I can’t buy a third dose. The fucking governments not only controls the market through regulation but also by having exclusive purchasing rights. I still strongly argue that a convertible bond issuance by the Pharma companies would have generated the same cash needed for R&D that the governments provided. And if they were allowed to compensate volunteers, the drug would have been available much sooner, and available to younger persons.
But we have to wait on the third dose that would give us much better protection than trying to convince the unvaccinated to get their first two shots. Biden has floated offering the unvaccinated $100 to get vaccinated. If economics don’t work, then keep your $100 Joe.
If Pharma had sold the doses to customers, you wouldn’t have this mistrust that is invalidly directed at the government. It would have worked so fucking well, too. You start it at $500 a dose, then the price drops as production increases. You let the first customers make donations to a fund for those who couldn’t pay. And at some point, the price drops to like $20. Anything valuable costs money. You actually have more mistrust when something is free. But the charity can cover the cost for those who really don’t have $20. That is the other way Pharma gets the funds for R&D and production - it is allowed to sell its product. Works for everything else. The movie costs more to see it in the theater then the price drops when it has been out for a while. What about the really poor? They are equally fucked in the current system. Rwanda didn’t get much vaccine when the United States did a big contract purchase. At least a charity can give Rwanda citizens the right to buy the vaccine instead of them having their government beg the U.S. for some.excess supply.
And if you eventually still have a hard-core group of unvaccinated that are still greatly burdening the medical system, you simply announce that hospitals will have the right to refuse admission to the unvaccinated who have COVID, if the hospital is full. They are businesses. Why shouldn’t they have the right to make that decision? You might see a big increase in the vaccination rate if that happens.
Government has indeed fucked this up, but not in the way many of you think. More lockdowns and mask requirements and limitations on the right to travel is not the answer, nor is the answer allowing the government to be the sole purchaser of the vaccine. If we had let industry solve this, it would already be over. Almost everyone would be vaccinated, and I would be able to get my third dose.