[kart23]

Read in between the lines for a moment.

They're saying that the differences are secret, and they're not gonna release the specific structure of the LNPs and why the differences are there. The equivalent of having two proprietary binaries that both accomplish the same task, but have different code, and the reasons why are secret as well.

And we're accepting this on the first mRNA vaccine ever to be used on a massive scale, all to protect their profits before the rest of the world can start producing vaccines. Yes they spent a lot of money and time creating the vaccine. Now open source it and let the rest of the world save their citizens.

[Siira]

> Yes they spent a lot of money and time creating the vaccine. Now open source it and let the rest of the world save their citizens.

And who’s going to pay for it? The whole PPE shortage was exactly because of this entitled attitude. If you artificially limit prices, you’ll only limit the supply (to possibly nothing, as vaccines have high upfront costs), and enable scalpers.

One obvious solution is to have a UN initiative that buys the IP and opensources it. I don’t know how hard this is. Generally, one big problem is the lack of gratitude on the part of freeriders. Otherwise, the goodwill it generated for the sponsors would probably be enough to make it happen.

PS: I live in Iran. I am not defending my privilege here.

[kart23]

Ideally, they would realize that moral responsibility to save lives is greater than money in this case. I don't think money would even be a problem, public pressure would be enough if everyone knew what was at stake. The companies capable of manufacturing would still make money by selling the vaccine to governments and people.

[em500]

Probably every doctor and nurse feels moral responsibility to save lives is greater than money in any specific case. But if you cut all their compensation to minimum wage plus a bit, I doubt many will keep working in health care for very long.

[IfOnlyYouKnew]

It doesn't matter now because that's not some ingredient you can bolt on. It was part of the initial design process.

Sure, they could have shared all their secrets, and BioNTech theirs. Then, they would have come up with the same vaccine candidate and run two identical trials. Which would've been quite useless and far more risky.

[mensetmanusman]

Nation states have responded to this ambiguity by directing well financed hacker groups to steal this information.

Their ethics say the ends justify the means.

[Siira]

I doubt they even think about the ethics. It’s not like they weren’t doing nefarious cyber activities before Covid-19.