Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by Daniel H on March 10, 2021, 3:33 am Edited by board administrator March 10, 2021, 4:00 am
https://apnews.com/article/marcelo-ebrard-mexico-clinical-trials-coronavirus-pandemic-china-f1e26e31e060664961d0deeb56ca4413 The big catch phrase now is vaccine diplomacy, countries are using free and low cost vaccines to effect how other countries view them. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vaccine+diplomacy&t=h_&ia=web The best diplomacy move would have been if the Oxford vaccine would have been gifted to the world via open source, nobody would have been able to touch that, they would have been a world saving hero. Unfortunately that ship has sailed. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vh7G-RKHgAyxCncWdbmyLWFRMYXskRSffQBXjT-XdnA/edit Basically the same with Moderna, totally US financed but lost out to the established mindset (open source is foreign to most corporations) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderna The world is still seriously lacking in vaccines. Neither Russia,India or China opposed the TRIPS waiver which is sorely needed. Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the UK, and the US are still blocking it but that may change in the future as more vaccine diplomacy erodes the value of the corporate agenda. https://msfaccess.org/wto-covid-19-trips-waiver-proposal-myths-realities-and-opportunity-governments-protect-access The moral high ground is still available (open source) and the first one to take it will lead the way to everyone either being on the - we the people train - or end up having a Monsanto sized PR problem. We can not only hope but each of us can put pressure on our governments who are opposing the TRIPS waiver to change their position. We go together or not at all. | -----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by Annie Olson on March 10, 2021, 7:23 am, in reply to "Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"
Thank you Daniel H for sharing both your inner awareness thoughts and your links to support it. Any tool we find to guide us and help us stay balanced and strong as our wold keeps turning is appreciated! I personally appreciate the La Manzanilla Message Board and your stamina ion keeping it afloat. As a member of our village, I am offering the tool of watercolor (which helps me stay balanced) in a free session today thanks to El Cato Restaurant. This restaurant is allowing space for me today from 11am- 12:30 to spread out (socially distanced of course) watercolor supplies for anyone who has a desire to learn to use them as a tool to create inner awareness and balance. Yes, as the saying goes “it takes a village”, and we share a beautiful village. | -----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by david dagoli on March 10, 2021, 9:18 am, in reply to "Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"
Open source is exactly how this global vaccine problem should be handled. The draconian travel restrictions you are seeing in Canada (and other countries) show how paranoid the government is about the changes in Covid-19. This virus can easily mutate out of the vaccine effectiveness zone if allowed to spread. If enough people aren’t vaccinated quickly enough, the new variants will take over and it's back to square one. If we only vaccinate the rich, we could still have the Cambodia-variant, the Yemen-variant, the Guatemala-variant, and so on. (Annie Olsen - thanks for your efforts to encourage enlightened thoughts in the middle of all this!) | -----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by david dagoli on March 10, 2021, 10:35 am, in reply to "Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"-----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by david dagoli on March 10, 2021, 10:58 am, in reply to "Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"-----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by Daniel H on March 10, 2021, 2:17 pm, in reply to "Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines" Edited by board administrator March 10, 2021, 5:36 pm
The Trips waiver is like a temporary open source, when you can't get the real answer (open source) then try for what we still have a chance of getting (TRIPS waiver). https://opensource.com/open-organization/20/6/covid-alliance There are several organizations working hard on this topic (I will put a list of links at the bottom). I expected this topic not to get a lot of main stream media coverage but Social Media and even Reddit are strangely quiet on the TRIPS waiver. What I am trying to do is get some chatter going by coming up with (or find an existing) a NON SHAMING meme that will go viral, and bring the kind of pressure to opposing governments that was present when the AIDS cures were released from restraints. They couldn't fight public opinion back then and they can't fight it now if the voice is unified. The hard part is the non shaming part. We are so used to vilifying / blaming / fighting someone as a path to resolution when that is not the best way to go. We should first box them in and then give big pharma the opportunity to appear benevolent, at least as a first option. If that works then perhaps they will start to see that it really is together or not at all, not only on this topic but on climate change. That is the paradigm shift that is needed. ------------------- Here are the links to sites I have been visiting with some random notes below them. Below the random notes are some thoughts about what a viral meme could consist of Vaccine patent AccessIBSA project - https://accessibsa.org/ Covid-19 Credentials Initiative - https://www.covidcreds.org/ Covidavax live - https://covidvax.live/ C-TAP - WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool - https://www.who.int/initiatives/covid-19-technology-access-pool# Developing Economics - https://developingeconomics.org/ Free the Vaccine - https://freethevaccine.org/ Gavi COVAX AMC - https://www.gavi.org/ (financing for COVAX, formerly known as the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) Global Justice Now - https://www.globaljustice.org.uk/ * Kaiser Health News - https://khn.org/ * Knowledge Ecology International - https://www.keionline.org Linux Foundation Public Health (passports) - https://www.lfph.io/ Opensource.com - https://opensource.com/open-organization/20/6/covid-alliance Open Source Pharma Foundation - https://www.ospfound.org/ Open COVID Pledge - https://opencovidpledge.org/ Oxfam - https://www.oxfam.org/en - https://www.oxfamamerica.org/ Public Citizen - https://www.citizen.org - https://www.citizen.org/?s=covid19 - https://www.citizen.org/?s=coronavirus Peoples Vaccine - https://peoplesvaccine.org/ STAT vaccine tracker - https://www.statnews.com/feature/coronavirus/drugs-vaccines-tracker/#vaccines The International Society for Vaccines - https://isv-online.org/ * The Access Campaign - https://msfaccess.org/about-us Yunus Centre - https://www.muhammadyunus.org/ The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/us --------------------- Here are some random notes with the links to where I got them, it is something I did while learning. PEPFAR - President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief TRIPS - Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement TRAIPRA Doha Declaration CTAP - COVID Technology Access Pool Covax initiative, led by the World Health Organization ----------------------- Covaxin - Indian - Inactivated virus - Sinovac - China - Inactivated virus 50% effective, Sinopharm - China - Inactivated virus 79% effective https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Sinopharm&t=h_&ia=web ----------------------- Sputnik V is a viral vector vaccine, which uses a harmless virus that carries genetic material to stimulate the immune system. Producing it is a complicated process, said Elena Subbotina, a consultant with the pharma consultancy CBPartners’ Central and Eastern Europe Team. Producers can’t guarantee stable output because working with biological ingredients involves a lot of variability in terms of the quality of the finished product. Mexico signed a deal for 24 million doses and was hoping to receive 400,000 in February but got only 200,000. https://apnews.com/article/europe-global-trade-middle-east-diplomacy-moscow-e61ebd3c8fe746c60f5ecc1ec323c99a Pfizer also said its factory upgrade in Belgium is short-term pain for longer-term gain, as the changes will help increase worldwide production to 2 billion doses this year instead of the originally anticipated 1.3 billion. https://apnews.com/article/why-its-hard-to-make-vaccines-explained-9173d65f7da50eee432d43d36769c516 The goal is that countries will be able to vaccinate 20% of their population with the COVAX doses by the end of this year — https://apnews.com/article/world-news-coronavirus-pandemic-east-africa-africa-uganda-f9d5f61a5574fe75b9d89852f4439851 Mexico and Argentina have an agreement with AstraZeneca to produce the vaccine for eventual distribution of 250 million doses in Latin America, with financial support from the foundation of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mexico-vaccines/mexico-gets-astrazeneca-doses-from-india-expects-more-pfizer-as-it-prepares-for-next-phase-idUSKBN2AE0HW But many told Reuters that the data raised hope within the scientific community that it would be possible to virtually eliminate COVID-19, if only the world could be vaccinated quickly enough. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-variants-insight/when-will-it-end-how-a-changing-virus-is-reshaping-scientists-views-on-covid-19-idUSKBN2AV1T1 Some projections predict that low-income countries such as Mali, South Sudan, and Zimbabwe may not achieve significant levels of vaccination until early 2024. The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine, initial tests showed, is far less effective against the Covid-19 variant that has spread rapidly through South Africa, for example. Under the COVAX plan, which the U.S. is supporting with $4 billion in funds, pharmaceutical companies either directly distribute or license partners to manufacture vaccines abroad. “There’s actually a lot of capacity that could be repurposed to make more vaccines, but in order for that to happen, there has to be something from the federal government that compels it to happen,” Prabhala said. “If the Biden administration goes to Pfizer and says, ‘We’re compelling you to expand supply,’ it would essentially be going against what the official U.S. administration policy has been on these issues for decades.” https://theintercept.com/2021/03/03/vaccine-coronavirus-big-pharma-biden/ Biden’s hesitance, aides say, stems from lingering uncertainty over the potential for vaccinated individuals to still transmit infections, as well as concerns over rising coronavirus variants that could challenge the effectiveness of the shots. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-manage-pandemic-expectations-35a1e534f83860a074f09b85eadbaa71 Last year only four companies were making vaccines for the U.S. market, down from more than 20 in the 1970s. As recently as Feb. 11, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, complained that no major drug company had committed to “step up” to make a coronavirus vaccine, calling the situation “very difficult and frustrating.” Moderna, another company working on a vaccine candidate, received nearly $1 billion from the U.S. government to pay essentially all costs to research the product and get it approved by regulators. It’s using a vaccine designed in large part by the National Institutes of Health and academic scientists using federal grants. https://khn.org/news/rather-than-give-away-its-covid-vaccine-oxford-makes-a-deal-with-drugmaker/ “This is a wake-up call to all of us,” Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a White House press briefing on Friday. He acknowledged that the virus is changing more quickly than once thought, and that the variants now spreading around the world won’t be the end of its evolution. “That means that we as a government, companies, all of us in this together, will have to be nimble to be able to adjust readily What is apparent to scientists and public health experts is that the US, and indeed the world, is now in a race to vaccinate as many people as possible before these problematic mutations gain a foothold Moderna has gone so far to begin preparing for a Phase I study of a B.1.351-specific booster dose that would be given as a follow-up to people who already received the original vaccine. In guidance posted last summer, FDA officials left the door open for emergency authorization or accelerated approval by biomarker alone—meaning a booster could get approved based on whether vaccine recipients have changes in antibody levels “reasonably likely to predict” protection against SARS-CoV-2. In that situation, these surrogate measures would replace a full Phase III trial designed to determine if vaccinated folks are less likely to contract Covid than a placebo group. But there’s another possible explanation. Instead of directly disrupting the ability of antibodies to bind, E484K could be “shielding” parts of the protein, making it harder for the antibodies to “see” the virus at all, kind of like a cloaking device. Other viruses, like HIV and the one that causes dengue fever, have evolved such a trick. What’s getting lost in all the worries over new variants though, he says, is the monumental stroke of luck that two large-scale vaccine trials happened to have kicked off in South Africa, exactly where one of the new strains emerged. “We learned about it as quickly as one could, so now we can know we’re OK, but we’re certainly not done.” https://www.wired.com/story/what-will-it-take-to-make-covid-19-vaccines-variant-proof/ COVAX has the world’s largest and most diverse portfolio of COVID-19 vaccines, and as such represents the world’s best hope of bringing the acute phase of this pandemic to a swift end. https://www.gavi.org/ By Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine AllianceCovax - The effort’s goal is to ensure vaccination for a fifth of the population of its 190 participating countries and economies before the end of next year. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/world/covid-covax-vaccine-deals.html It’s a potential face-saving coup for China, which has been determined to transform itself from an object of mistrust over its initial mishandling of the COVID-19 outbreak to a savior. Like India and Russia, China is trying to build goodwill, and has pledged roughly 10 times more vaccines abroad than it has distributed at home. “Some of them donated, some of them sold, and some of them sold with debt financing associated with it.” Vaccine deployment globally has been dominated by wealthier countries, which have snapped up 5.8 billion of the 8.2 billion doses purchased worldwide, according to Duke University. China’s vaccines, which can be stored in standard refrigerators, The bulk of Chinese shots are from Sinovac and Sinopharm, which both rely on a traditional technology called an inactivated virus vaccine, based on cultivating batches of the virus and then killing it. Some countries view it as safer than the newer, less-proven technology used by some Western competitors that targets the coronavirus’ spike protein, despite publicly available safety data for the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines and none for China’s. Over 9 million Sinopharm shots have been given outside China. Globally, public health officials have said any vaccine that is at least 50% effective is useful It’s also unclear how the Chinese shots work against new strains of the virus that are emerging, especially a variant first identified in South Africa. F https://apnews.com/article/technology-santiago-chile-diplomacy-coronavirus-pandemic-0382aefa52c75b834fbaf6d869808f51 ------------------------- Covax initiative, led by the World Health Organization multinational effort to secure vaccines for countries that can’t afford them. The initiative wants to get 2 billion vaccine doses out to these countries in 2021. CTAP - COVID Technology Access Pool - running in parallel to Covax, it’s led by the World Health Organization. This is something of a information sharing club to help scale up the global production of vaccines. The intellectual property system for drugs is governed by the World Trade Organization. Specifically, it’s regulated by an agreement called TRIPS, which stands for the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement. This agreement obliges all WTO member states to offer 20 years of monopoly protection on new patented products. There is a group of 35 least developed WTO member states that are still exempt from these obligations, but all the other countries that are members of the World Trade Organization have to play by these rules. https://theconversation.com/how-patent-laws-get-in-the-way-of-the-global-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-155494 --------------- In 2001, a deal was finally reached. Called the Doha Declaration, it clarified “that the TRIPS Agreement does not and should not prevent member governments from acting to protect public health,” according to the WTO. The amendments specified that countries could seek compulsory licensing — a way for a government to waive intellectual property rights without the patent owner’s consent — in cases of national or other extreme emergencies. It also laid out mechanisms for the companies to still receive compensation. The Doha Declaration helped lower the cost of lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications for the hardest-hit victims. Along with the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a U.S. program that was passed in 2003, these collective actions started to turn the tide on a treatable disease upending the lives of millions of people in less wealthy countries. If the United States takes “a big and bold stand” — as it did with PEPFAR — “that could get us focused on the capabilities we need now and for the next crisis and restore some credibility” to U.S. pledges to help. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/20/poor-countries-arent-getting-vaccines-waiving-intellectual-property-rights-could-help/ ------------------- Types of vaccines Viral vector vaccines mRNA vaccines Protein subunit vaccines whole virus vaccines - These are when you inject a whole but harmless version of the coronavirus into your body and this generates an immune response. These use either harmless versions of the coronavirus that are still alive, this is called a live attenuated vaccine, or a dead normal version of the coronavirus, this is called an inactivated vaccine. adenovirus vaccine – these use harmless adenoviruses to deliver a gene from the coronavirus into your body. Your cells then use that gene’s directions to make a piece of the coronavirus. It’s totally harmless, it’s just a little protein, but it triggers a really strong immune response. mRNA vaccines, like the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines. When you get one of these, a bit of mRNA – a form of genetic code – is shot into your arm. Like with the adenovirus vaccine, your cells read these genetic instructions to create the same protein from the coronavirus. Again this triggers a really strong immune response, it’s totally harmless. https://theconversation.com/how-patent-laws-get-in-the-way-of-the-global-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-155494 ------------------- Moderna stock value Febuary 2000 - $ 18.54 Moderna stock value Febuary 2021 - $178.45 https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/MRNA Indicatively, the European Union has agreed to pay 15.50 euros ($18.90) per dose for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/countries-look-to-acquire-the-ip-of-vaccine-makers-to-fight-pandemi By the numbers: Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca are only expected to produce enough vaccine in 2021 to cover about 1.5% of the world's population. Pfizer CFO Frank D'Amelio said on the company's earnings call this month that while "pandemic pricing" in the U.S. is $19.50 per dose, "a normal price that we typically get for a vaccine" would be $150 to $175 per dose. https://news.yahoo.com/vaccine-patents-complicate-efforts-scale-123017873.html =================================== Here are some basic thoughts and ideas for a meme. Most people are cooperating, mask, social distancing, lockdown, closing or losing their business, not seeing loved ones when they die, not traveling, but the Pharmacudicals are saying we don't want to cooperate at all. So they have consolidated vaccine manufactures into a select few, if it is not you we can turn to in a time of crisus then who? I guess we should start that search now. Soon vaccine passports will be required to travel, how can others compete when they can't get the vaccination to begin with? Phuck Pfifer Pandemic Profiteer Mute the Moderana Money Pandemic Protect Pharma Profits bumper sticker Share the code share to win stop the madness Warp drive to granny low Warp drive, warp go No Patents, No Monopolies in a Pandemic Lets do this (TRIPS waiver) I'm for it The right side of history Let's not trip this time, waive the waiver its better to waiver than trip and fall Its like the world is on fire and the people that make fire trucks won't teach anyone else how to make them. The tell others they have to buy the trucks from them. When others point out that they have no trucks to sell they say "that is not my problem". Fundamentally speaking this is an entire planet project, all hands on deck. To get away from the blame and shame game, no finger pointing. Global effort. A shift in conciousness. A shift in the way of thinking. There is not even any doubt that EVERYONE would do their part to end COVID. Its destroying most of the planet, if it was destroying all of the planet then the answer would be more obvious. Big pharma may loose wome money but look at how many others are losing money. Pharmacuticals are companies that help prople. Give them a PR problem that will make whatever profits they didn't make look like a drop in the bucket. I don't think the government nor the vaccine producers are familiar with open source. No government grants should have gone to anyone not willing to open source their vaccine and preference given to those companies and shame given to anyone seeking to profit in any way from a vaccine. Daniel
| -----------------------Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines
Posted by David H on March 11, 2021, 8:45 pm, in reply to "Re: Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"
Magnificent research and reporting, Daniel! Thank you! | -----------------------TRIPS waiver blocked again
Posted by Daniel H on March 11, 2021, 5:01 am, in reply to "Mexico to rely heavily on Chinese vaccines"-----------------------Re: TRIPS waiver blocked again
Posted by david dagoli on March 11, 2021, 8:33 am, in reply to "TRIPS waiver blocked again "
What a shame. China is smart to step in here and increase their stature and penetration into markets. However, India is the world's largest producer of vaccines. If anybody can do this, it’s them | -----------------------Re: TRIPS waiver blocked again
Posted by Daniel H on March 11, 2021, 9:26 am, in reply to "Re: TRIPS waiver blocked again "
"India is the world's largest producer of vaccines. If anybody can do this, it’s them" More like if anybody can do this its ALL of us. It was only a few weeks ago that I learned about patents blocking an all hands on deck response and was shocked. If we can't ALL join together to eliminate COVID19 from the earth now then when? April 27, 2020 Oxford group was way ahead in the quest for a COVID vaccine, here is the way they were thinking and how they were moving forward, what the hell happened? We were so close to the ideals of open source of collaborating and cooperation. For me its literally heart breaking. ------ As the pandemic exploded, grant money poured in. All other vaccines were soon put into the freezer so that the institute’s laboratory could focus full-time on Covid-19. Then the lockdown forced everyone not working on Covid-19 to stay home altogether. “The whole world doesn’t usually stand up and say, ‘How can we help? Do you want some money?’” Professor Hill said. “Vaccines are good for pandemics,” he added, “and pandemics are good for vaccines.” Other scientists involved in the project are working with a half dozen drug manufacturing companies across Europe and Asia to prepare to churn out billions of doses as quickly as possible if the vaccine is approved. None have been granted exclusive marketing rights, and one is the giant Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest supplier of vaccines. Donors are currently spending tens of millions of dollars to start the manufacturing process at facilities in Britain and the Netherlands even before the vaccine is proven to work, said Sandy Douglas, 37, a doctor at Oxford overseeing vaccine production. “There is no alternative,” he said. But the team has not yet reached an agreement with a North American manufacturer, in part because the major pharmaceutical companies there typically demand exclusive worldwide rights before investing in a potential medicine. “I personally don’t believe that in a time of pandemic there should be exclusive licenses,” Professor Hill said. “So we are asking a lot of them. Nobody is going to make a lot of money off this.” https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/world/europe/coronavirus-vaccine-update-oxford.html
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