Abstract This chapter examines the political economy of biopharmaceutical innovation, focusing primarily on vaccines in the Covid-19 pandemic. This analysis aims to make visible the deep entanglements that entrench an extractive and dysfunctional innovation ecosystem, calcifying inequities in global access to essential medicines. The chapter argues that the current inequities in vaccine access are not […]
Continue ReadingWe paid to develop Merck’s covid pill
Originally published at pluralistic.net Cory Doctorow Comparing the government to a household or a business isn’t merely inapt (a government is a currency creator, while a household is a currency user – their budgeting constraints are totally unrelated) – it’s also profoundly dishonest. Like, if you really are worried about government “living beyond its means,” […]
Continue ReadingIsraeli Data Demonstrates the Importance, and the Limits, of Vaccination
Originally published at dtcochrane.com DT Cochrane I recently saw a misleading presentation of COVID data pertaining to Israel. In this post I’m sharing several graphs that I made to counter this misleading image. Israel is currently a popular object of those committed to an anti-vax narrative because a high proportion of the population is fully […]
Continue ReadingRemaking Our Economies with Wartime Analogies, Part 3
Originally published at dtcochrane.com DT Cochrane In Part 2, I looked at the shifts in U.S. household consumption that occurred during WWII. While aggregate consumption increased alongside massive government intervention, the qualitative mix of that consumption changed in some drastic ways. This analysis was intended to augment the analogy made by J.W. Mason and Mike […]
Continue ReadingRemaking Our Economies with Wartime Analogies, Part 2
Originally published at dtcochrane.com DT Cochrane In Part 1, I explained the motivation for this series. I want to use the analogy of WWII, as invoked by economists JW Mason and Mike Konczal in an NYT op-ed, to consider how we ought to manage a potential post-pandemic economic boom. In this post, I will look […]
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