Prosecute countries blocking the production of generic Covid-19 vaccines in the International Criminal Court
vendredi 17 décembre 2021 à 02:17Proposal: to prosecute the countries that are blocking generic production of Covid-19 vaccines in the International Criminal Court.
The article makes an interesting suggestion, but its analysis calls for clarification. It is not correct to say that the countries such as Canada, Germany, the UK, Japan, and South Korea are "hoarding vaccines".
The real vaccine hoarders are the companies that make the vaccines. They block the independent production of vaccines so that everyone has to buy from them; this increases the price they can charge, and thus increases their profits.
Countries such as Canada, Germany, and so on are culpable for helping the companies do that. But they are not exactly "hoarding" the vaccine themselves. In criminological terms, they are accessories.
What is the motivation of the leaders of those countries for supporting that deadly profiteering? One obvious possibility is that the leaders are corrupt -- that they get personal advantages from serving powerful businesses. This is how plutocracy works.
But I hesitate to suppose that their motives are naked, simple corruption. I wonder if those leaders believe their countries have a real national interest in supporting artificial scarcity. That would enable them to believe they are somehow serving their countries, not merely helping to kill for profit.
It's possible that they really believe the propaganda built around the term "intellectual property". Please join me in refusing to use that term, not solely because of the propaganda but also because it generalizes about laws that are too different for generalizing.