https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZPzGWfRtPk&feature
Saturday, August 8, 2020
‘Taking Taxpayers for a Ride’: Moderna to Charge $32-$37/Dose for Covid-19 Vaccine Developed Entirely With Public Funds
https://citizentruth.org/taking-taxpayers-for-a-ride-moderna-to-charge-32-37-dose-for-covid-19-vaccine-developed-entirely-with-public-funds/
“It ought to be the people’s vaccine, not a new taxpayer burden.”
(By: Jake Johnson, Common Dreams) Consumer advocates warned Wednesday that pharmaceutical giant Moderna is “taking taxpayers for a ride” after the company announced plans to charge between $32 and $37 per dose for a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed entirely with funds from the U.S. federal government.
“Taxpayers are paying for 100% of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine development. All of it,” Peter Maybarduk, director of the Access to Medicines Program at Public Citizen, said in a statement. “Yet taxpayers may wind up paying tens of billions more to Moderna to buy our vaccine back, if it proves safe and effective.”
“The so-called Moderna vaccine belongs in significant part to the people of the U.S,” said Maybarduk. “We paid for it. Federal scientists led the way. It ought to be the people’s vaccine, not a new taxpayer burden.”
The experimental vaccine is currently undergoing a Phase 3 clinical trial that is expected to enroll around 30,000 adult volunteers who do not have Covid-19, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Trial results are expected as early as October.
“Results from early-stage clinical testing indicate the investigational mRNA-1273 vaccine is safe and immunogenic, supporting the initiation of a Phase 3 clinical trial,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a statement last week.
Under pressure from advocacy groups to publicly disclose how its potential vaccine is being financed, Moderna told Axios Wednesday that U.S. taxpayers are providing “100% funding of the program.”
Since April, the Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company has received nearly a billion dollars in taxpayer grants to develop a vaccine as part of the Trump administration’s so-called Operation Warp Speed.
“The company received $483 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in April to support its vaccine development,” CNBC reported. “Last month, it announced it received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government.”
Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, wrote in a blog post Wednesday that “this funding paid for the research and testing” and “it also meant that the government took all the risk.”
“If Moderna’s vaccine turns out to be ineffective,” wrote Baker, “the government will be out the money, not Moderna.”
Despite the fact that Moderna’s price tag for its coronavirus vaccine is the highest yet announced by any corporation involved with Operation Warp Speed, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel on Wednesday characterized the cost as a discount during a conference call announcing the company’s massive second-quarter revenue increase.
But Public Citizen noted the absurdity of charging the public anything at all for a vaccine developed entirely with taxpayer funding.
“They want us to buy back a vaccine developed with our tax dollars,” the group tweeted.
Medical Experts Speak Out as Trump Doubles Down on False Claim That Children Are 'Virtually Immune' to Covid-19
"I am a pediatric cardiologist. They can get sick. Some do get sick. Very sick. Some of them end up intubated."
by
Jake Johnson, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/06/medical-experts-speak-out-trump-doubles-down-false-claim-children-are-virtually
Medical professionals were compelled to speak out Wednesday after President Donald Trump defended and doubled down on his claim that children are "virtually immune" to Covid-19, a dangerous falsehood the president has been spreading as part of his effort to pressure schools to reopen in the fall.
"I'm talking about from getting very sick," Trump said at a Covid-19 briefing Wednesday when asked to address comments he made about the supposed "immunity" of children during a "Fox & Friends" interview earlier in the day. "If you look at children, I mean they're able to throw it off very easily. And it's an amazing thing... They may get it, but they get it and it doesn't have much of an impact on them."
Shortly after Trump's briefing, Twitter and Facebook both removed videos posted by the president's campaign account and personal page claiming that children are "almost immune from this disease." Both platforms said the videos violated their rules against disseminating misinformation about Covid-19.
On Twitter, medical experts condemned Trump's comments as both factually inaccurate and highly irresponsible.
"I am a pediatric cardiologist," wrote Dr. Keila Lopez, assistant professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. "They can get sick. Some do get sick. Very sick. Some of them end up intubated; some on IV cardiac meds; some on heart lung bypass machines because of cardiac involvement from multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C)."
Dr. Leana Wen, visiting professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, applauded Facebook's decision to remove Trump's post downplaying the threat Covid-19 poses to children.
"Children do become infected," tweeted Wen. "Some become very ill. Tragically, some have died. Kids are also vectors for transmission to parents and others around them."
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