Public Comment

Rich countries continue trying to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating a majority of their populations only to find new strains of the virus mutating in unprotected poorer countries. 

America often boasts that it is the leader of the free world but sadly missed a critical opportunity to organize a global response to the virus. It’s time the Biden administration demand U.S. vaccine manufactures allow poorer countries to share their vaccine recipes and bring an end to this pandemic. Unless we think about how to manage not just COVID but all other infectious threats globally, not just with a domestic focus, we will find ourselves victims time and time again. 

We need to be more proactive in doing more for the world and less focused on what we can do for our own population at home. That is a losing strategy time and time again. Furthermore, we have a public health system that continues to be subservient to our pharmaceutical system whose only goal is to maximize profits. New strains will invariably arrive in the U.S. infecting mostly unvaccinated non-believers who continue to expose their friends and families. The collective prides of the “Djokovic’s of the world” are a major cause of record infections overburdening health care facilities throughout the country. Vaccine apartheid offers a perfect breeding ground for the viruses to continue mutating into evasive variants which can arrive and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines in richer countries.
Vaccine apartheid offers a perfect breeding ground for the viruses to continue mutating into evasive variants which can arrive and potentially undermine the efficacy of vaccines in richer countries.