Who Saw Omicron Coming? Many, In Fact.

[discocrisco01]

Nobody saw it coming. Nobody in the whole world. Who saw it coming?" That was President Joe Biden speaking on ABC Wednesday about the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Vaccines remain out of reach for much of the world's population.

Moderna filed a patent claim in July that listed only its scientists; the NIH says three of its own, publicly-financed scientists - John Mascola, Barney Graham and Kizzmekia Corbett - played key roles in the vaccine's discovery.

If the U.S. can prove it belongs on the patent, Moderna would lose some control over how the vaccine gets manufactured and distributed.

It's part of The People's Vaccine Alliance, a global coalition pressuring for development of COVID-19 vaccines as a common good, fairly distributed to everyone, everywhere, for free.

According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, more than two-thirds of people in high income countries have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose; in low income countries, less than a tenth of the population has received one.

Lifting patent restrictions "Loosens Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech's stranglehold on these vaccines," Prabhala said.

https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/23/who_saw_omicron_coming_many_in

[underpants]

1. Looking for something else I found this from August 2021

Unvaccinated People Are Increasing the Chances for More Coronavirus Variants — Here’s How

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/unvaccinated-people-are-increasing-the-chances-for-more-coronavirus-variants-heres-how

Written by Roz Plater on August 10, 2021 — Fact checked by Maria Gifford

It’s perhaps just a matter of time,” said Dr. Michael Saag, a professor of medicine, infectious diseases, and virology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“Let’s say, hypothetically, that a new variant could emerge where we won’t be so fortunate, and the existing vaccines won’t work,” Saag explained to Healthline.

“I call that hypothetical variant Omega. That’s the one we’re all fearing. It hasn’t happened yet, and we hope it doesn’t. But the longer this goes on with widespread transmission, the possibility increases with time,” he said.

[stopdiggin]

2. To be fair, there are really QUITE a lot of

issues involved with distributing vaccines to underserved populations that don't have anything at all to do with manufacturing (or copyright). This is, at best, a small piece of the puzzle. And attacking this one corner of the problem - runs the danger of shifting focus away from the myriad other things that need urgent attention.

(this is one time when the 'big pharma' trope that we are so fond of, might not be the issue deserving our focus)