“Arsenal of Democracy Then. Vaccine Maker of the World Now.” – Again

I posted this eight months ago.  Normally, that would be recent enough that I shouldn’t have to say it again.  But very little about Covid is normal, so let me repeat it.

Back then, I suggested that, with demand for vaccines dropping in the United States, we should take our extra doses and send them to countries that needed them.  Since then, our need for vaccines has increased: boosters and shots for younger and younger kids.  Still, while I don’t know for sure, I would be surprised if we don’t have the capacity to make all the doses we need – and more.  According to the World Health Organization, global vaccine production is close to 1.5 billion doses a month.¹  I don’t know how much of that capacity is in the United States, but it’s probably a fair amount.

Which brings me back to my idea of last May: “In World War II, we were known as the arsenal of democracy.  In the war against Covid-19, let us be the vaccine maker of the world.”  Back then, I said that, instead of worrying about who owns, or should own, the patent rights for the vaccines, we should just pay the companies who make vaccines to make more of them – lots more of them. 

Now, I would say we should even pay for extra factories to be built, so even more doses can be produced.  The world needs them, and we can make them.  Maybe “Big Pharma” will make money, but so what.  Lots of people will live who would otherwise die.  How many people are we willing to let die while we argue about how much money the drug companies should make?  We had wartime profiteering during World War II, but we kept it under reasonable control while we turned out the weapons and ammunition to beat Germany and Japan.  Why can’t we do the same thing with Covid?

During World War I, Herbert Hoover organized and ran the feeding of Belgium and parts of northern France.  After World War I, he did the same to combat famine in Russia.  Why can’t the United States step up and do the same thing today?  It would be good for us; it would be good for the world.  And if we want to, we can do it.
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¹ “The world must learn to live with Covid this year,” Financial Times, January 4, 2022.