The View from Right Field

Arsenal of Democracy Then. Vaccine Maker of the World Now.

Demand for vaccines is dropping around the United States.  States are telling the federal government they don’t need their full share.  If we don’t have more vaccines than we need now, we will soon.  So here is an idea of what to do with the extra doses we will have: Send them around the world to the people and countries that need them.

Instead of making a show of supporting a waiver of patent rights in vaccines, something that will take months to negotiate with other countries and months more before companies can start manufacturing vaccines they have never made before, why don’t we make them for the world ourselves?  We can allow American companies to export vaccines.  And for poor countries, we can buy them from American manufacturers and give them to those who can’t afford them.

Waiving IP for Vaccines – Or Actually Doing Good

The Biden administration has, perhaps not surprisingly, agreed to support a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines.  It sounds good on the surface, but I can’t help but wonder if the better solution might be to just pay Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to make as many doses as they can as quickly as they can.  They know how to make these vaccines.  They have the best idea on how to ramp up production.  Instead of giving away IP to people and companies who may or may not know how to make these vaccines, why not just buy more doses from the people who do know how to make them. 

The United States could volunteer to pay the costs.¹  The total cost would probably disappear in the rounding with all of the programs the Biden administration is already proposing.  And giving away vaccines would be a great foreign policy move.  Russia can’t afford to do it, and China doesn’t have vaccines that work as well as these.  But we do can it.  We can help the world.  And that’s something you do when you can.

Spending Lots; Doing a Little Good

Nancy Pelosi famously¹ said of Obamacare that you had to pass it to see what was in it.  It appears that was true of Joe Biden’s first big Covid relief bill, too.  In January, I said this about President Biden’s proposed plan in a post entitled “Covid-19 Relief Ought to Be More Than Just Throwing Money Around Randomly”:

“A properly-targeted pandemic relief program wouldn’t waste money by giving it to people who don’t need help.  If we target the help where it is needed, there will be more money for the people who actually need help.  It’s not a matter of cutting costs; it’s a matter of having enough money to help those who really need it.”

The US Economy Is On a Path To Do Fine – As Long As

Per an article in yesterday’s Financial Times¹:

“Most advanced countries will emerge from the coronavirus crisis with little lasting damage, thanks to relatively rapid rollout of vaccines and a willingness to increase sharply spending and borrowing, according to the I[nternational] M[onetary] [F]und. …

The fund was bullish about prospects of a rapid US recovery without inflationary pressures.  [IMF chief economist Gita] Gopinath said: ‘The US is really the only large economy whose {economic output} for 2022 is projected to exceed what it would have been in the absence of this pandemic.’”

“A World of Our Own” – A Song for Lockdown

I wish I had found this 1965 song by The Seekers last year.  It would have been perfect for our stay-at-home orders.  Let’s hope we don’t need it this year.

UPDATE (3/24/21 9:20 am): To show how right this song would have been for lockdown, here are the first two verses:

Will Disneyland Be Opening Before Some Schools?

The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that, because of California’s easing of Covid-19 restrictions, The Happiest Place on Earth^® could be opening next month, on a reduced-capacity basis, after being closed for almost a year.  The union that represents some of the workers at Disneyland, who have been on furlough or out of a job since the park closed, said the workers “are excited to go back to work to provide Californians with a bit more magic in their lives.”¹

An interesting contrast, perhaps, to the things being said by many teachers unions around the country, but then not getting paid for almost a year can tend to give one a different outlook.  One might almost be tempted to say that, while the Disney workers want to be able to get back and act like Goofy¹ again, the leaders of some teachers unions have been acting goofy for a long time.
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¹ Disney World, in Florida, has been operating on a reduced-capacity basis, since July.
²  And Mickey and Minnie and Donald.

Vaccinated. What Now? A Follow-Up

On February 11, I asked, in a post entitled “What’s Next for the Virus? Shots, Restrictions, and Masks”:

“Once we get to that point, i.e., when there is enough vaccine for everybody, what does that mean about all the restrictions we have been living under?  What about social distancing?  Limits on restaurants?  Plays and concerts and sports?  Ultimately, what about masks?”

The Chicago Tribune had an article in Sunday’s paper: “After the second dose of vaccine, what’s next?”  People want to start doing things.  That’s one the reasons they are getting the vaccine, but the experts in the article seemed to say things won’t change that much:

Why Wasn’t Texas Ready for the Cold? Why Weren’t We Ready for Covid-19?

In talking about getting ready for the next coronavirus, etc., last April, I said this in my conclusion:

“Robustness.  Resiliency.  Nimbleness.  These are what we need if we are to be ready for the emergencies and disasters that will happen, though we don’t know which ones or when.” 

The problem is, however, as I said in December:

“Building robustness, resiliency, and nimbleness into our systems and our countries, and maintaining them over time, will cost money, a lot of it.” 

What’s Next for the Virus? Shots, Restrictions, and Masks.

Both Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Scott Gottlieb are saying that, by April, we are going to have plenty of vaccine.  Everybody who wants a shot will be able to get one.  In other words, the problem pretty soon is not going to be getting a shot; it will be getting enough people to get a shot.  One hopes the powers that be are working on that.

But another question: Once we get to that point, i.e., when there is enough vaccine for everybody, what does that mean about all the restrictions we have been living under?  What about social distancing?  Limits on restaurants?  Plays and concerts and sports?  Ultimately, what about masks?

Vaccine Bragging

With the number of people getting at least their first Covid-19 vaccine shot going up, we are seeing more and more posting, on Facebook and elsewhere,¹ by people showing pictures of their vaccine cards or standing in line to get their shot, etc.  Which I wonder about. 

While more people are getting shots, a lot of people aren’t, even in the “essential worker and old people group” that they are doing now.  It’s hard, especially for those who may not be computer-literate, to figure out how and where to get an appointment.  Even those who are on-line have to be lucky to get an appointment because there just isn’t that much vaccine available yet.  And then there are those people who aren’t eligible yet for a shot.  They too are concerned and worried.  Their risk may not be as high, but it isn’t zero.