How capitalism and racism hold back a COVID-19 cure

The capitalist mode of production is slowing the development of vaccines including for COVID-19. When the polio vaccine was developed in the 1950s, inventor Jonas Salk famously compared the absurdity of patenting the polio vaccine to “patenting the sun.” If a vaccine is treated as a commodity instead of as a public good, the price paid is in human lives lost. A global pandemic must be matched by a global effort. The World Health Organization and European Union have launched plans to coordinate efforts on vaccine research and production — efforts the U.S. has so far refused to join. The effort to produce and distribute hundreds of millions or billions of vaccine doses is staggering but can be achieved through international cooperation for the benefit of all. Read the full article: https://www.liberationnews.org/how-capitalism-and-racism-hold-back-a-covid-19-cure/