Stephen Buranyi: Big Pharma is fooling us
Success with coronavirus vaccine doesn’t mean industry deserves your affection.
(Shira Inbar | The New York Times)
Big Pharma is fooling us
By Stephen Buranyi | For The New York Times
| Dec. 21, 2020, 1:00 p.m.
It’s about as near as science gets to a miracle: A coronavirus vaccine has arrived and the main reason is that mRNA vaccines, a previously untested technology, appears to work better than almost anyone had hoped.
As recently as this summer, many analysts were pushing their predictions for a vaccine into the fall of 2021, in line with the timeline of traditional treatments. If these new vaccines perform as well in the wild as they have in clinical trials, the world will remember it as a victory perhaps greater than Salk and Sabin against polio. If this new type of vaccine also goes on to work against other viruses, it will mark an epochal advance in vaccinology, closer to the discoveries of Pasteur and Jenner.
The omnibus does not include Democratic language that would have blocked Trump’s executive order lifting protections for civil servants and helping political appointees to remain in government posts after Biden takes office.
The legislation maintains several abortion-related restrictions, such as the long-standing Hyde amendment that prevents federal funds from being used for abortions.
While it doesn’t include the sweeping police reforms House Democrats approved following George Floyd’s killing in late May, it would provide $5 million to create a database to track police misconduct, and $153 million for programs to better community relations with police, a 77 percent increase from fiscal year 2020.
Vice President Pence at a Life is Winning Event Published: 19 December 2020 19 December 2020
Washington, DC - Remarks by Vice President Pence at a Life is Winning Event:
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you all very much. And today is really about really about celebrating the progress we’ve made in the cause for life and also thanking the leaders that are gathered in this room, and all of you that’ll be looking on livestream around the country, for the way that you’ve stood. You’ve stood for life for the last four years, and I promise you we will never stop fighting for the right to life. (Applause.)
Despite heroic work for Covid vaccine, pharma cos don t deserve affection business-standard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from business-standard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Despite being only a few days away from Christmas vacation, the Trump administration continues to follow through on its commitment to life and religious liberty, with nine different federal agencies finalizing a joint rule this week providing for fair and equal treatment for religious groups in federal programs. HHS Secretary Alex Azar joined me Wednesday on âWashington Watchâ to discuss his departmentâs participation in this rule.
Secretary Azar explained that the Obama administration had put âa scarlet letterâ on faith-based providers which required them to announce their status and direct funds to secular providers instead. Yet âif their faith wasnât there, most of them would not be nonprofits,â Secretary Azar told me. âThatâs what motivates them.â Indeed, by breaking with the previous administrationâs discrimination, the Trump administrationâs HHS has proven its commitment to protect religious liberty once again an