Covid ICU Patient in hospital in Sarasota, Florida. (Shannon Stapleton / Reuters)
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been suspended in Europe because of accusations that it is associated with blood clots. Jason Horowitz and Benjamin Mueller, Berlin Drove Europe's Pause in Inoculations, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at A1.
In the interim, AstraZeneca is not yet approved by U.S. regulators. Marc Santora, Regulator Vouches for AstraZeneca in Wake of Suspensions in Europe, NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, March 17, 2021, at A8.
As a matter of fact, there is no sign that the AstraZeneca vaccine is actually responsible for blood clots. "There is no danger," says the President of Italy's Medicines Agency. The AstraZeneca vaccine is probably behind old age as a cause of blood clots reported by a very few people who have taken the vaccine, in fact. See Jason Horowitz and Benjamin Mueller, Berlin Drove Europe's Pause, supra; Marc Santora, Regulator Vouches for AstraZeneca, supra.
AstraZeneca is a nonprofit, it is far cheaper than other vaccine alternatives, it is stored more easily, and it is already shipping to Covax countries, meaning the countries that participate in the Covax program. Marc Santora, Regulator Vouches for AstraZeneca, supra. Parenthetically, the Covax program does not make a profit; it does not curb vaccine distribution by selling intellectual property rights for a fee (which many poor countries cannot afford).
Another way to describe the AstraZeneca vaccine is that it is designed to be the workhouse of vaccine programs, with 2 Billion doses to be delivered to 70 countries so far. Marc Santora, Regulator Vouches for AstraZeneca, supra.
The recent accusations were led by Germany. Germany led the way to demonize AstraZeneca on false pretenses and nonexistent side-effects. Jason Horowitz and Benjamin Mueller, Berlin Drove Europe's Pause, supra.
The concerns about vaccine safety voiced by Germany and now by much of the rest of Europe are not about just any vaccines, let alone all of the vaccines, they are just talking about AstraZeneca. Jason Horowitz and Benjamin Mueller, Berlin Drove Europe's Pause, supra.
It is no coincidence that Pfizer is eager to step in where AstraZeneca vaccines have been "lost to the suspension," it has been announced. Jason Horowitz and Benjamin Mueller, Berlin Drove Europe's Pause, supra.
Pfizer is most certainly not nonprofit. It is a for-profit company associated in selling vaccines with BioNTech, another for-profit company. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine's availability following unfounded accusations led by Germany against its cheaper nonprofit competitor, Oxford-AstraZeneca, is not a fluke.
BioNTech is a German corporation. The headquarters of BioNTech is in Mainz, Germany.
Capitalism involves competition, but whatever is happening now is not competition.
Please read the disclaimer. ©2021 Dennis J. Wall. All rights reserved.
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