Shots Shots Shots, EVERYBODY
Herd immunity & vaccine hesitancy, Big Pharma patent tears, Facebook Oversight Board non-decision and more.
Happy (Mother’s Day) Sunday! If you’re in the US and have an iPhone, all links are available on my free app for daily news and politics: Ideacracy. If not, I’ve also included the original links below.
Pictured: Public health messengers who were way ahead of their time.
Shots Shots Shots, EVERYBODY
In a new fresh hell, it became clear this week that herd immunity in the US is likely out of reach.
As a quick refresher, herd immunity is another morsel of an epidemiological concept that we’ve learned thanks to the pandemic. It basically describes a threshold at which enough people develop resistance to a virus such that it stops the spread from getting out of control.
Back when we only had the original coronavirus strain to contend with, the bar for herd immunity was pretty low. The Lil-Jon-remixed-and-much-shittier variants (sorry, still looking at the picture for this article) are more of course contagious. Higher contagiousness means a higher bar for herd immunity. All the while, efforts to get the population vaccinated are starting to bump up against the most obnoxiously first-world problem of all: vaccine hesitancy.
The news about herd immunity is certainly not great. But honestly, it’s not really clear how helpful this concept was in the first place. Regardless of whether the herd immunity threshold is 65% or 90% for example, the answer is the same - we need everybody to get shots shots shots (last time I’m writing this, so you’re welcome).
To the extent you encounter vaccine skepticism in friends and family, there are important ways you can help. To help guide those kinds of conversations, here are some awesome takeaways from Tuesday’s Pod Save America episode (starting at around the 38 minute mark):
There’s a difference between people who are anti-vaxx and vaccine hesitant. For heavy anti-vaxxers, there’s probably little room to convince them. For the vaccine hesitant though, there are ways to reach them over time. It likely won’t be politicians or even public health officials who can convince them. Instead, it will be local medical professionals and people in their personal networks.
Approaching vaccine hesitancy comes down to acknowledging concerns and being patient. As with anything, people are more likely to dig in when they feel confronted. Instead, try meaningful questions. As an example, here’s something I tried in one of my recent personal encounters: “It’s understandable you’re concerned that the vaccines were rushed. What is the evidence that would help show you over time that these are safe? As more and more people are getting vaccinated, serious side effects are rare.”
We should continue to follow the science and reward people for getting vaccinated. For example, it now seems that going maskless outside (in not-crowded areas) doesn’t present any practical risks, so it’s not worth arguing over. Also, relaxing mask mandates in these instances would follow the science in a way that feels liberating. In a similar vein, Michigan has tied the loosing of restrictions to the rates at which communities are getting vaccinated. Or my personal favorite: in West Virginia, they’re simply paying people to get vaccines.
You can listen to the Pod Save America episode here: on Ideacracy or on your podcast app.
People > Pharma Profits
On Thursday, the Biden administration announced its support for waiving vaccine patents. This still needs to be brought to the World Trade Organization for approval. But if the waivers happen, it means that companies around the world could start manufacturing vaccines based on the formulas developed by Big Pharma.
After the announcement, shares in the Big Pharma companies dropped. In the hazy, far-off distance, the world’s smallest violin began playing.
Supporting the waiver is the right thing to do and it shows bold, international leadership. Right now, the entire world is in a race between vaccines and the variants. But we don’t have nearly enough supply for widespread availability - let alone any kind of equity, especially as wealthier nations hoard the supply that is available. The waiver would be an important step for developing countries (like India) in particular, as they could then produce vaccines domestically and get access to cheaper, vaccines sooner.
So what are the arguments against waiving the patents? As you may have guessed, corporate PR teams are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Just one example is the outcry over the effect these waivers could have in the future. The argument is that large companies and investors won’t be incentivized to innovate if they won’t be able to profit from that innovation. Like any spin though, this argument relies on some very heavy doses of reductiveness and straight-up denying reality. Big Pharma has profited immensely and they will continue to do so during the rest of the pandemic. The difference made possible by waivers is between profit and exploitation.
From what I can tell, the only actual drawback from the waivers is that they can’t occur fast enough. It takes time to build up manufacturing capacity for vaccines and to get governmental approvals for safety. In that time, supply is expected to increase a large amount anyway. That being said, every bit of progress in terms of quantity, speed and access will mean more lives saved, especially among vulnerable populations.
You can see a short post and article on this from Professor Robert Reich: on Ideacracy or on Facebook.
Facebook’s Trump-Less Trumpism
On Wednesday, Facebook Oversight Board announced its non-decision on Trump’s ban from Facebook. He was of course banned after January 6th, when he used social media to organize, encourage and then praise the insurrectionists. He hasn’t been allowed back onto most if not all platforms since then. So the MAGA mob is somehow managing without his seditionist macrame on Etsy or anti-mask vision boards on Pinterest.
In some ways, Facebook’s Oversight Board did the opposite of what it’s intended to do. It’s a supposedly-independent (but Facebook-funded) group of 20 illustrious people charged by Mark Zuckerberg to make difficult decisions around content (so he doesn’t have to). Instead of deciding whether or not to allow Trump back onto the platform though, the Oversight Board kicked the decision back to Facebook. In a statement, they found that the original ban was warranted but a lifetime ban is not, so Facebook should revisit that decision in 6 months.
In my humble and very sophisticated opinion, the decision is bullshit. Much like Alex Jones spreading every vicious lie known to man (including, infamously, about the Sandy Hook shooting), there are certain instances where permanent bans from these platforms are very much warranted. There’s no shortage of ways in which Trump’s conduct has met that threshold.
Dan Pfeiffer’s view in this week’s Message Box is of course more nuanced and smarter. It’s great that Trump is off the platform and we can feel Schadenfreude for Zuckerberg. But the fact is that Facebook remains a Trumpist platform. The top 10 Facebook posts are consistently dominated by Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino and Fox News (e.g. Hannity and Carlson). So regardless of whether Trump is on the platform or not, the worst disinformation is continuing to flow and Facebook is actively empowering this messaging. Or at the very least, they’re complicit by not doing anything (real) about it. The Oversight Board decisions continue to be more smoke and mirrors.
You can read Dan Pfeiffer’s newsletter here: on Ideacracy or on Substack.
And now for our high note:
Our fifth issue in the books! Have a wonderful Mother’s Day everyone. Stay safe, stay healthy, and catch you later this week.