Sunday, March 31, 2024

Quote of the Day (Adam Tooze, on Proper Funding for Vaccine Development)

“To expect that funding [for vaccine development] to come from the private sector is unrealistic. The work is too expensive and high risk and the returns too uncertain. Philanthropy and public-private partnerships may work. But ultimately it is governments that should foot the bill. Unfortunately, in public policy, pandemic preparedness is all too often relegated to the cash-starved budgets of development agencies or squeezed into strained health budgets. Where such spending properly belongs is under the flag of industrial policy and national security.”— English historian and international security scholar Adam Tooze, “Vaccine Investment is a No-Brainer—So Why Aren’t We Doing It?”, The Financial Times, Mar. 30-31, 2024

(The image accompanying this post, showing a woman receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, was taken Jan. 16, 2021, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL, by Whoisjohngalt. According to a 2022 study cited by the National Library of Medicine, at least 14.4 million COVID-19 deaths worldwide were prevented by the dissemination of the vaccine within the first year alone.)

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