Just for kids: Sylvanian family dolls.
What does a feral dachshund have to do with a famous lioness? In Born Free, Joy Adamson told the story of Elsa, an orphaned lion cub, whom she raised and eventually returned to the wild as an adult. Just recently, Valerie the miniature dachshund turned Elsa’s story inside out, when she went missing from her pampered Australian life on a camping trip on Kangaroo Island, off the coast of Western Australia, more than 500 days ago. Long since given up for dead by her distraught Gen Z “dog parents”, Valerie has now been spotted after surviving for 18 months in the wild.
Would a movie about Valerie’s adventures be called Born Tame? Valerie, who stands six inches tall, spent the first year of her life being cosseted with treats and toys and woolly jumpers. And yet, having now spent longer in the wild than she did living in a household, she is reportedly “looking very healthy”. The couple are confident that it’s only a matter of time before she is recaptured. But what if she doesn’t want to go home? Josh Fishlock, Valerie’s purported owner, has told Australia’s Today programme that attempts to lure the dog back to captivity are not going well; every time someone tries to approach her she runs away.
No wonder; it sounds to me as though she’s living her best life. There’s something heroic about a creature that, bred to live as a pampered pet, has rediscovered enough of her canine instinct to survive for months in the Australian wilderness. In turn, Valerie’s unexpected wild flourishing shines a spotlight on our strange modern relation to pets: often radically denatured, anthropomorphic proxies for ourselves, or substitute babies, mostly or entirely denied opportunity to express their animal instincts.
Part of the problem is that we first invented childhood innocence, then grew to love it. But we have also, over time, turned this into an urge to stay innocent of the most poignant natural childhood fact: babies grow up.
Historians and curators are fond of observing that the idea of “childhood innocence” is a distinctively industrial-era invention: children were segregated away from adult activities when Britain began to be industrialised, and adult activity abandoned its mainly agrarian premodern setting. The first wave of compulsory education was initiated in the 19th century partly as a means of keeping young children out of factories.
As the poet Seamus Heaney illustrated in The Early Purges (1991), this enabled a shift in how children relate to animals. We think of animals as cute, furry, stroke-able, meriting care and protection. Heaney, by contrast, describes his childhood memories of witnessing animals being killed, as part of everyday life on a farm, and how he soon grew inured to the sight. Against this grim reality, he calls the urban fixation on “prevention of cruelty” a feature of cultures “where they consider death unnatural”.
Among such urban communities, in which the kind of death Heaney describes is no longer routinely visible, it has become possible to conceive of childhood as a kind of moral Eden, that children enjoy in the brief years before they learn about the harsh realities of life. And if it came to being with industrial urbanisation, this style of innocent kids’ content is still very much with us today, as illustrated in charming form by a new movie released next week. Based on the Sylvanian Families children’s toys, its plot could not be less arch, or perilous, or postmodern, or ironic, or in any other way postmodern or internet-poisoned. It’s about how Freya the Chocolate Bunny goes looking for a lovely birthday present for her mummy.
Sylvania perfectly illustrates both the industrial-era Eden of children’s innocence, and its denatured modern relation to animals. Sylvanians are wholly anthropomorphic, with animal heads but identical, humanoid bodies. They are all the same size regardless of species, and there’s no sense of predator/prey relations. Meanwhile, as proxies for our human lives, the message they convey is both charming and — by postmodern standards — very conservative. For if there’s no death in this Arcadia of trim cottages, well-kept pavements, and consumer abundance, sex is present — but only implicitly. Clothing in the playsets is meticulously gendered, and families are stubbornly heteronormative — not to mention very fecund.
It represents, in other words, a note-perfect toy version of the industrial-era idyll that held, at least in the world of children’s toys, until very recently. So given the post-industrial and post-modern turn in our culture, I was genuinely surprised to see Sylvania played so straight in the movie. For even as children have grown fewer, and child-substitute pets more numerous, so Toyland has reached ever further into adulthood — and, at times, become less innocent with it. Many children’s toy franchises now cater overtly for adult audiences too.
Much of this is innocuous enough, as for example LEGO’s “Creator” sets, or takes the form of ironic asides aimed at parents sitting through a favourite show for the umpteenth time. But there are also more unsettling spin-offs of children’s toys, that collapse the supposedly “safe” sex and death-free space of childhood, such as this PVC-clad Build-A-Bear with devil horns and dominatrix boots, or the sometimes fetish-tinged “Brony” subculture of adult male My Little Pony fans. So needless to say I was not just surprised, but relieved, to find Sylvania as clean and un-cynical as ever. But my surprise itself signals how fragile this sensibility now appears to be.
So what explains the influx of adult preoccupations and sensibilities into children’s toy franchises? When so many adults seem so fearful of “adulting”, and shy away from parenthood in favour of “fur babies”, perhaps it’s only to be expected that childhood innocence would extend. When we’re told that adolescence now stretches all the way from 10 to 24, you might think this would mean a longer period of innocence. And yet puberty has been getting steadily younger. Meanwhile, even if we still keep death mostly tucked carefully out of sight, sex seems to be everywhere — even wildly inappropriately “sexy” clothing for little girls.
The creep of adult preoccupations into children’s toys speaks more to this protracted adolescence than childhood as such. My own little girl is well into primary school, and whenever I imagine her stepping into this world, my overwhelming feeling is: “Please, no, not yet.” And yet, while I can do a little to slow the rush, I can’t stop it. Nor, it occurs to me, should I want to — at least not in every sense.
Recently, while teaching her to ride a bike, I was struck by how much easier pedalling away was for her, than letting go of the saddle was for me. She’d travelled 50 yards before she realised I wasn’t holding her; I meanwhile jogged behind, the emptiness in my hand like a 10-tonne weight. But what else can I do? There would be nothing kind or loving about wanting to keep her “safe” from the joy, fitness, and freedom that come with riding a bike.
And perhaps there’s another insight here, into why so many now seem to prefer a “fur baby” to the human kind. For it’s not that we want to extend childhood all the way to mid-20s. On the contrary: my surprise at the irony-free Sylvanian Families movie storyline points to the reality that Victorian-style childhood innocence is not expanding but shrinking. But what if the adult preference for “fur babies” reflects a yearning for children that won’t grow up? If “helicopter parenting” describes mothers and fathers who find it difficult to let go, perhaps “fur babies” are for adults so fearful of the bittersweet feeling of watching your baby grow up that they can’t bear to go there at all. Pets are not children — but at least they stay dependent and goofy forever. All, that is, except the ones who escape into the wilderness on a camping trip, and refuse to be recaptured.
So the unlikely flourishing of Valerie the sausage dog, reborn as a feral dachshund, could be read as a diminutive rebellion against Sylvania. But not in the sense of “modernising” Sylvania in accordance with adult proclivities, or some grievance studies script or other, so much as in defence of creatures having natural needs. Her vigorous health after 18 months of freedom on Kangaroo Island declares: “I may be small, but I’m not a toy or a fur baby. I’m an adult dog, and a predator.” I wonder: what will happen to Valerie if she’s captured but can’t adjust to the playpen and the knitted jumpers? I picture a sequel to Born Tame, in which she is tearfully returned, at long last, to her life as a wild dachshund. But however that story ends, it remains true that part of the nature of dogs, however domesticated, is still hunting. And the nature of children is to grow up.
Part of a mother’s love, then, must be judging when to let go. I tell myself this on a daily basis — and even so, the pride I feel at every milestone comes with a twinge of sadness. So I feel only grateful to Sylvanian Families for choosing to make a movie that hasn’t joined the rush toward modern extended adolescence. And doubly grateful that my little girl is still young enough to enjoy it.
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SubscribeThis seems an extremely one sided argument.
Scaling up production of new vaccines is very difficult, the resources and talent to do so is finite. There’s not a huge vaccine production base sat there idle – if there was they’d use it, if only for profit.
The rest appears a confused socialist rant.
Vaccine nationalism and capitalism is what drove the rapid development in the 1st place, not least massive upfront investment. Look at the EU for what happens when multiple countries join together to deliver vaccines, a big mess, politics (French candidate) rules over common sense, and paperwork rules. The constant socialist dream is that it would share the large cake fairly (would be nice) the reality is that there ends up being no cake.
As and when these vaccines hit poorer countries the challenge will be getting people to take it. Over 140,000 still die of Measles annually, because they don’t trust vaccines, 1.5 million of TB. 10s millions died of Aids because of religious leaders and urban myths around condoms.
So, because of “religious leaders and urban myths” they should be left at the back of the queue?
I didn’t say that. I did point out that it will be more difficult in many poorer countries to even persuade people to take the vaccine.
I also point out that other low cost proven things like Measles jabs and condoms could have saved millions of lives in poor countries. They’re readily available and yet shunned.
National competition and self interest has driven rapid development of the vaccines and the rapid scaling up in production.
When the people you are trying to help start calling the shots something goes very wrong.
You didn’t just write ‘because of “religious leaders and urban myths” they should be left at the back of the queue?’ did you? Do you still beat your wife?
No, he didn’t, and no I don’t suppose he does.
I am trying to understand what button of yours was pushed that resulted in this ridiculous response…
True. It happened in the Soviet Union. All share equally but no cake in the end except for the elite who oppressed the others.
This is not a serious piece of journalism. It’s ideological nonsense.
How are you doing to fund the development of new medicines, Ms. Spinney? Your magic fairy dust of socialism isn’t going to make it very far in the real world of funding research even if it provides you with a nice glow of moral superiority.
Dear STEM people,
currently if you work really hard and help develop something that improves mankind’s life expectancy you can hope for a riches, or at least a good bonus and a fat pension.
However henceforth we have decided that you will continue to work really, really hard for mediocre wages and a pitiful pension. We expect you to continue in your current role and nuture the next generation.
Please do not consider seeking alternative, better paid and easier employment in another industry or country. You are highly intelligent, very driven and experienced people – no one will be remotely interested in employing you.
Regards
Mrs Good Intentions
It’s a false show of virtue when you really look into it. The west was far more benign than the revolutionary socialist countries. Still they keep up the deception.
I’m not so sure that the UK participating in “vaccine nationalism” is even an ethical issue – we’re one of the hardest hit places on the planet, it makes a lot of sense to attack the issue here, and hard.
Imagine the poor luvvies at the BBC coping with the conundrum of our generosity “killing gran”
They’d probably say gran deserved it.
Well, she was white, and a woman, and probably voted ‘Leave’, and someone she didn’t know and was unrelated to was involved in the slave trade 200 years before Gran was born, so, yeah, f#k her.
Good points. Although, the UK is not even participating in vaccine nationalism, as far as I’m concerned. That’s exactly what Germany is doing, though. Their gov threatening to block Pfizer exports to the UK because a private company that happens to be based here isn’t giving them exactly what they want is the absolute definition of vaccine nationalism.
They can’t go down a legal route, because the contract states in black and white that they haven’t got a leg to stand on, so they’re throwing their toys out of the pram.
The UK has led the way in vaccine internationalism. Them, the USA, Canada, and India are world leaders in ensuring those countries with less procurement ability get better access to the vaccine. £540 million invested in the COVAX scheme since September.
All those who are soundbiting headline-seeking fools like Desmond Swayne as some sort of evidence for the UK’s so-called ‘nationalism’ in this respect is either suffering from a bad case of confirmation bias, has an agenda, or is completely and utterly blinkered to their own detriment.
Now there is concern about the poor countries? Where was this hand-wringing when shutdowns around the world threw sand in the gears of supply chains and displaced millions from their jobs and all the rest?
Globally, 130m people are in extreme poverty and around 11 million children (according to unicef) face malnutrition from the disruption in economic activity. And that’s before factoring in the additional 1.4m tuberculosis deaths predicted for last year.
A well-funded global health organisation could offer a prize for the vaccine or treatment most likely to reduce the global burden of a given disease, for example.
And it could also offer wholly misleading information, like the early claim that Covid could not be transmitted among humans, or how the WHO covered for China. This blind loyalty to “global” organizations as synonyms for righteous and well-meaning people is not supported by the actions of such bodies.
Most of the funding for the constellation of “well-funded…global organizations” goes to useless, feather-bedding bureaucrats, more expert at working the system and insinuating themselves into unassailable positions, rather than paying for anything that actually helps anyone.
Beautifully put. Whether one approves of the interventions pursued in the last ten months the fact is the poor, the young and poor countries will suffer the most from such policies and it will not be about the physical health of those groups, because neither in the main have elderly or the type of unhealthy populations which are the ideal target of the Virus it will be about lost educational, developmental and economic opportunities.
In years to come when we compare what has been destroyed and set back against what has been saved it will not look pretty.
Utopian claptrap, however well intentioned. The suggestion that decisions about pharmaceutical development should be vested in a global bureaucracy, which would also secure fairness of distribution, is risible. Who would decide who would be in charge? How would they decide on what should be researched? How would they avoid the Security Council problem where anything of importance goes down the pan with a veto? How would the scientists know what skills to develop for the longer term? Does anyone seriously believe that every country in the world would meekly submit to whatever this global body decided was fair?
Where does this insane Socialist clap trap come from?
We have just had an example from the EU, that it takes longer for an entity with 27 countries to make a decision. Because they were late ordering they are now complaining that it is unfair that the people who ordered first should receive their supply first.
Imagine what would happen if we had to rely on the WHO, or some other international body (made up of 160 countries) had to decide? I doubt if any vaccine would have been ordered at all!
Secondly, there seems to be a believe that Governments are better at making a decisions on new ideas than a host of pharmaceutical companies (think France). It is the very fact that there is more than one company trying to make the vaccine, that has produced the results we all want. Without making a profit from previously successful drugs the pharmaceutical companies would not exist.
So Laura, your ideas of a global health authority deciding on which vaccine to produce, would slow down the likelihood of a vaccine altogether.
So to put your ideas in the emotive terms you like, how many people in the UK would you like to kill, by slowing down the possibility of a vaccine happening?
Well Globalists Try anything from Bidens Recent ”Mail in Postal Fraud Win” to EU,UN,WHO ,Climate Kontrol loons, to further their One World fantasies….EU will disintegrate in next two years..
Whilst I understand and am against vaccine nationalism expressed by the developing world, it has to be said that the death and infection rate percentage wise is far higher in the developed world than in the developing countries. One just has to look at these rates on a world map to see this. Britain has the highest death rate percentage wise in the world which is also a country which is donating 3.5 billion for vaccines to the developing world. One has to ask who is going to put millions into vaccine research where there is no profit. It appears that we have to live by our work. It is very commendable to give everything away but our own families must come first in reaping the rewards of our work.
Equitable distribution? The whole of Africa has reported fewer deaths than in the UK, only 6 in Eritrea, and 63 in South Sudan, for instance. How do you define ‘equitable’?
Does anyone know why South Africa is faring so much worse than other African countries? No other African countries are in the top 20 for fatality rates. Almost all the worst-hit countries are in Europe or in the Americas.
Don’t know the answer but expect that it is because South Africa is comparatively rich and people will have longer life expectancies. If Covid is particularly dangerous for old people, presumably you are a lot safer if the average age of the population is low.
That makes sense, yes. But countries like Peru and Brazil are also having terrible Covid outcomes, and I’m not sure they qualify as particularly rich or have particularly old populations in the South American context.
Yeah I noticed that. The countries with the highest abortion rates and equal marriage also.
Ease of Transmission,more overcrowded a Country worse it Copes With pandemic,..South Korea being an exception..
Low obesity rates there?
Yes. And A track &trace system Via CC,Bankcard transactions…We may protests ,as State Can See your Purchases ,so I dont think it’d succeed here?
There are lots of hugely overcrowded cities all over Africa, though: Cairo, Lagos…
More travel into and out of South Africa than other African countries. That also explains Europe and the Americas. The virus goes where people want to go. Not much travel to South Sudan.
The issue is not so simple as ignoring patents. It might help for this pandemic but would be devastating for the next as companies would choose to opt out on vaccine production altogether. No one wants to invest billions on a high risk operation while knowing if they are successful, someone who risked nothing will reap the benefit. A more workable solution would be wider licensed production vice just stealing the IP. The companies would see a return on their massive investment and countries would get their needed vaccines. Liability is another issue. Someone always has a reaction to any vaccine and someone always ends up suing. The vaccine developers need a shield for vaccines produced by third parties they did not select. Some will suggest turning over vaccine development to governments. Good luck. If you think any bureaucracy could have pulled off this vaccine development, you haven’t studied your history.
“…
South Africa’s recent difficulties in obtaining proprietary chemicals
used in Covid-19 tests, partly due to patent-holders not wanting to
release formulas. There is an unfortunate precedent for this. At the
beginning of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, President Nelson
Mandela’s government took steps to reduce the cost of expensive new
antiretroviral drugs, including issuing compulsory licences to allow
local production.”
I must sadly state, this is only part of the complex situation in South Africa. As far as HIV/Aids is concerned costs were not the main issue. The same applies to the chemicals mentioned above and now vaccines. One may blame “big-pharma” but an investigation into actions of the government would produce interesting ( damning one may say) results.
Regards,
What you’ve said is true. In the early 2000s Thabo Mbeki’s government pursued a policy of active AIDS denial and doctors had to fight incredibly hard to get funding for treatments as simple & effective as Neviraprene which is use to prevent moth-to-child transmission of HIV when a child is born. Neviraprene was finally approved in 2002 or 2003.
I have no recollection of the earlier Mandela government approving any ARVs, let alone forcing compulsory licenses. At the time our doctor friends were up in arms; a favourite joke of theirs was that the name of Dr Zuma (Minister of Health) was an acronym for “zero understanding of medical affairs”.
I will try to add some links to Zapiro cartoons of the time.
From November 2009: https://www.zapiro.com/0911…
And this week: https://www.zapiro.com/2101…
You may add the Virodene saga to all of that.
Regards,
There is a strata of elites that hate the idea of nationhood and national sovereignty, and it is no wonder they find it galling that a nation would prioritize the well-being of its own citizens over the well-being of foreigners.
Reading this article, you would think that the West created the Covid pandemic, then lucked out when vaccines fell from heaven into our hands, and then greedily decided to horde the whole stash. In fact China gave the world this virus, and the West came up with the cure. Which we will generously share, subsidized at our own expense, after we’ve taken care of our own.
“Vaccine nationalism hurts us all and is self-defeating.”
Nonsense. That is only true if by “all” you mean the world in aggregate. Every dose that gets shipped overseas is a potential life lost domestically, at least until everyone is vaccinated. Yes, it is in my interest broadly that the economy of Nigeria not fall apart. But it is more in my interest that I get vaccinated in a timely fashion.
I have an issue with this article’s subject matter.
India is lobbying to have patent protection removed, so ‘vaccine nationalism’ can be avoided, and yet because India has a bad local epidemic, its government has decided that SII must meet emergency domestic needs before it ships to COVAX.
In other words it is OK for India to practice ‘vaccine nationalism’, but not OK for the countries who nurture and frequently fund the organisations who can actually produce the vaccines.
I just love the hypocrisy.
The author is a bit dim, I’m afraid
The threat to a nation is that they WILL get this “vaccine”. It does NOT come under any definition of “vaccine” that the medical industry would previously have used. It does not confer immunity, does not prevent transmission and does not end lockdown according to the manufacturers and our government. So what is it for? The conventional flu has disappeared, according to government statistics, do you believe that?
A virus will kill those already in decline, mostly those who are aged. I have survived 68 years without a flu jab and when I become weakened enough with the body’s decline the flu or similar virus will help end it. No vaccination can prevent that.
This genetic experiment is not a vaccine and may destroy the immune function and health of the vaccinated permanently.
wise words on your count and many of us at a similar age, agree.
How many people would have been jabbed by now if the WHO was in charge of vaccination?
I think all the priority groups would be done by now, the top WHO people and their families.
I can imagine that since they are predominantly an advisory and training agency they would advocate devolution to appropriate level public health organisations, and aid those which were struggling. In other words, it’s down to the individual death agencies of the constituent nations.
Why would anyone in his right mind submit to a ‘vaccine’ for an ailment which poses no serious threat to the otherwise healthy ? Even for over 70s the survival rate is 96.4%. And mRNA isn’t a vaccine at all in the Edward Jenner sense that we were taught in school but a new technology untested and thereby in breach of Nuremberg Code. The threat of restrictions is also a violation. Not that you’d learn that from plutocrat media, COVID’s principal sponsors.
Submit? In Hollywood and other leftist enclaves, the status statists are stampeding to the front of the cue.
Typical reaction of someone who doesn’t feel personally threatened. You forget about 2 important things:
1) If the death rate is ‘only’ 96.4%, it means that about 300,000 will die. As more people get older (even you at some time) that number is still high. But, you say, they will die anyway. Which brings me back to the point that you don’t feel threatened.
2) If a further 300,000 survive after a real struggle they will live the rest of their lives in terrible anguish, not being able to breathe properly. Apart from the personal suffering this will tie up the NHS for ever.
Maybe you’ll get killed in your car but that won’t be important because 10,000 people get killed in car accidents every year.
as someone has already pointed out, at its root this is a socialist whine.
The drive to produce a vaccine so rapidly has not come from “academia” but from private enterprise, which is why the leading companies producing successful vaccines have been either partly or fully American-owned.
Anything connected to the WHO at the moment should be avoided, that organization has been corrupted by the chinese and nothing that comes from there is to be trusted.
Any organization that President Trump withdrew from was corrupt or useless, ranging from the Iran deal, the Paris accord, funding UNRWA, and others, and if the new biden administration re-enters any of them just to show it is different from and rejects the work of the Trump administration, it will be to the detriment of the US and the rest of the world.
The behaviour of the EU trying to cover up their miserable failure is truly sickening.
Any Brit who does not breathe a sigh of relief that the UK is out of it, is lacking a basic quality of gratitude and appreciation.
Poor article, left wing socialist nonsense. If we want companies to develop products (vaccine) they need to be motivated and their intellectual property protected.
Surely it makes sense to factor in the demographics – the rich countries have a much older populous and so arguably have a greater need.
“At the beginning of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, President Nelson Mandela’s government took steps to reduce the cost of expensive new antiretroviral drugs”
This is factually incorrect. Government did not take ARVs seriously until the mid-2000s, long after Mandela’s time. He was a great president but only came round to supporting ARVs after retiring.
So it’s all a con? The pharma devil’s are making billions? Well one thought occurs to me is that if a vaccine keeps the older people alive for longer the pharma companies will make a hell of a lot more given the amount of meds some of us need.
don’t need the meds just get fed the meds.
OR many are being protected from the vaccine experiment and if it does great harm, we still have a pool to preserve humanity.
A risky vaccine for a virus which is NO THREAT to the vast majority. world gone mad.
AND THIS IS NOT CORRECT –
which will take years if not decades to recover from Covid-19.
it should say – will take years if not decades to recover from Covid-19 RESPONSES. not from the virus but the reactions to it.
So don’t take it then.
“The cost of the national vaccine”…..Thousands of dead and seriously debilitated people in years to come.
Setting aside the various comments about big Pharma, world organisations etc etc, I do agree with the main point in the article I.e there is a serious need for a global discussion about how to deal with global diseases and pandemics. In many ways , the Covid pandemic was an accident waiting to happen . The world is an ‘increasingly small place’ with billions of people travelling internationally every year – on holidays , business trips etc. Never before have we made it so easy, created such conditions for diseases to spread around the world in days. Never before have there been so many people and such local crowded centres in which new diseases can take hold very very easily. There will be further pandemics and it’s quite possible that a future viral pandemic will make the Covid pandemic look like a walk in the park. The world definitely needs an agreed set of actions for addressing future pandemics . A plan of action that includes but is not restricted to vaccines and any treatments that we find. Certainly the ‘liberal , democracies’ ( freedom loving countries as Johnson so clumsily described the UK reluctance to introduce restrictions) need to come up with a far, far better plan of action. Either that or muddle along in our usual ways with yet more loss of life and appalling economic cost, growing weaker while China grows ever stronger and dominant.
You only have to watch the proceedings from the United Nations to know that a global way forward is a ‘must’.
What is WHO other than “A well-funded global health organisation” 6,794,371,000 USD, https://open.who.int/2020-2…
Which seems to fit the profile, so why not put a bit more pressure on that organisation to be just a little bit better.
A little simplistic – I will avoid commenting on the EU as it it always creates black and white emotional responses in a complex grey world. If the issue is effective delivery of any vaccine in the developing world -one may want to think about how the mechanism works in delivery – the reality with Ebola is that 35% of the money went to ghost medical entities – or that a recent Zeneca report validated in part by Lancet . noted that they had succeeded in dropping unit cost of drugs from over 15 to 1 – with out any significant take up – it is not just a supply issue but one where we should look very closely at supply and demand and create effective feedback loops from the consumers them selves. Secondly think how the delivery mechanisms for COVID can be moved from their silos and be repurposed when the COVID crisis is over.. Malaria , TB and many other diseases in the developing world kill far more….
At risk of what?
Yes we have the inevitable squabbles within the EU – and shortages in some/many countries. Typical for Brussels to mess up!
BUT as far as allowing patents to be ignored/ cribbed etc that’s a risky business and reduces incentives for future development work for all types of progress.
I have some knowledge of South Africa and the AIDS crisis – having been in a research environment in SA in the 70s when it appeared in SA. It was mostly heterosexual AIDS and brought into SA by mine workers from central Africa and spread mostly amongst the African population as a result of promiscuity among African mine workers. (some would say understandably as they lacked a family environment).
However, the African leadership in SA for years lacked judgement and any moral principles. For example the ANC SA president Zuma claimed a shower would eradicate any risk after unprotected sex! As a seedy sexual encounter with a AIDS positive woman got out into the press. President Zuma with over 22 (official) children and 4 or 5 wives, plus other affairs set an appalling example.
AND they failed to treat the population for some years. With huge AIDS death rates. Nothing to do with costs – the ANC and Zuma, with his famous profligacy managed to bankrupt most SA provinces and came close to this with the central government.
Donations or freebies are not always appreciated and corruption and graft in the foreign aid industry has often been shown to be a real waste of taxpayer’s money..
How is it right that hard work, and huge investments in every way should be done for nothing? A socialist system does not lead to improvements for humanity Quite the opposite.
What a load of cobblers! The vaccines exists because companies and Governments invested in them. Of course their people are going to get first bite. This should be yet another wakeup call for the so called South. Most are countries rich in resources, it is just corruption and poor education systems and business environments that are preventing them from taking a rightful place in the world consistent with their unexploited wealth. It is hard to say, but countries get what they deserve.
by wresting control of lifesaving technologies from the patent-holders, and opening up their manufacture to generic producers sooner than those patents allow.
Lots of things could be classed as ‘lifesaving’. What else would be confiscated by ‘wresting control from the patent-holders’. Start going down that route and see where it gets you. This should be obvious.
Vaccinating 90% of the population of one country will have much more impact than vaccinating 1% of the global population.
When the oxygen masks drop down from the overhead panel in an aircraft, the instructions say “Put your mask on before helping others”. There’s a reason for that.
RE: As the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this month: “Vaccine nationalism hurts us all and is self-defeating.”
You know what’s even more self-defeating? What Tedros and the WHO did, when they toadied (and continued to toady) up to China and thereby allowed a pandemic to spread across the globe.
The global mortality of covid is of the order of 0.6 of one thousandth of one per cent. These vaccines are unlicensed and still in phase 3 clinical trials. There is no urgency, if we take high amp PCR tests out of the equation.
I thought Science was just White Man Lies?
If we can only just produce enough vaccines at the moment to vaccinate 10% of our population in 6 weeks; where are the additional jabs coming from for the rest of the world? Makes more sense too me to get the UK done ASAP, get us back up and running so that we can then spend the time and effort upping our production and getting it out to those other countries. We can use our foreign aid budget.
What’s wrong with this statement?
“we should simply use government funds to acquire the rights to the technology at market prices and then vaccinate everyone for free.”
What’s wrong is that there is no “free” Government spending, it’s taxpayers’ money.
The whole issue of borders is one of who pays for what and what do we expect in return.
Don’t worry. It will be like the flu vaccine which studies show has virtually no benefit in preventing flu. The aim is to provide an endless stream of income for big pharma.
You don’t need a vaccine for something that has less than 0.04% change if killing you. You have more cahnce of bieng killed by a stupid policeman. Yoiu have more chance of bieng killed in an aeropane accident and you never ask for a parachute.
There is only one reason this is happening. The vaccine industry is creating a panic to dive up the sales for one reason. The persuit of profit.
It’s well known in US that (1) Big Pharma budgets significantly more for marketing & sales than R & D; and (2) the cost of training scientists and clinicians and doing research is overwhelmingly borne by public universities and with oversight, coordination, planning, etc., and funding from the NIH, CDC, etc., and with a plethora of charitable funds specifically targeted for cancer, heart disease, MS, …. In short the industry is a hybrid where the dominant cost gene is vastly public. The real problem is that the government is wholly owned by the Private-for-Profit, patent laws being the perfect illustration.
You miss some important points. The whole idea of spending on a sales force is to sell the products that R & D has produced. If a company cannot sell their products, then they will have no money for R & D.
Also, the Government has much more money to spend on the things you mention because it can tax. I am sure that if you gave the pharmaceutical companies the right of taxation they would happily spend it on Universities!
Marketing and sales of what? Oh, yeah; the drugs that R&D produced. Someone makes the doughnuts and someone sells the doughnuts. Without one, the other is useless, and seriously, suggested that education – often funded through loans that the individual is responsible for – constitutes public support of R&D is quite a stretch.