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“We Are Hoarding”: Why the US Can’t Donate Corona-Vaccines to Countries in Need

29 points| _Microft | 4 years ago |vanityfair.com | reply

8 comments

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[+] gerty|4 years ago|reply
Oh, please, cry me a river. There's always a law to bomb another country, spy on the RoW, hack ally infrastructure, renege international treaties or put on some tariffs on imports from friendly countries, but somehow a minor contractual clause grinds to a halt export of vital medicine supplies during a pandemic.
[+] quickthrowman|4 years ago|reply
There’s a distinction to point out here. US courts enforce contract law, but the international political system is anarchic. Contractual breach cases have a venue willing to hear their case, your examples of actions taken against nation-states by the US government do not.
[+] HWR_14|4 years ago|reply
As a summary, the various vaccine manufacturers got the federal government to agree not to ship them outside the US as a condition of purchase, because then there would be additional liability issues the manufacturers would be exposed to.

This seems like an easy fix. Coordinate with those other country's governments pass a similar indemnification law for the COVID-19 vaccine and the price for the US organizing that and the other governments doing that will be the manufacturers allowing the US to ship its doses to them.

[+] splithalf|4 years ago|reply
No government would agree to that. Better have your citizens die of covid and blame it on foreign governments than to take all the responsibility yourself while giving outsiders indemnity. Governments have to play politics.
[+] kgeist|4 years ago|reply
>into the vacuum rushed Russia and China, who began currying favor around the world by distributing their own vaccines—of possibly dubious quality

Oh American arrogance, you can't mention China/Russia without trash-talking them. Trials show the vaccines are safe and effective: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6...

[+] newyankee|4 years ago|reply
I hope at the least somehow US can export some raw materials to AZN/SII in India to help scale up vaccine production, currently that is a huge bottleneck
[+] freebuju|4 years ago|reply
Double negative. Any help sent to India will be "stuck" in India as far as production of AZ vaccine is concerned.

Vaccine nationalism brought out the worst trait in our fickle species.