#1397 Vaccine Rollout Once Again Exposes the Divide in Our Global Medical Apartheid
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2021
⏱️ 70 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 2/10/2021
Today we take a look at the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the US and around the world. Between White and Black in the US, Israeli and Palestinian in Israel and the Global North and Global South broadly, the legacies of colonialism and racism predictably play themselves out.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Elisabeth Rosenthal on Troubled Vaccine Rollout - CounterSpin - Air Date 1-15-21
Many could and did predict that the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine would be marred by the Trump administration being the Trump administration, and the hollowing out of public health infrastructure.
Zeynep Tufecki [@zeynep], associate professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, explains why public health officials send mixed messages on everything from masks to variants.
Ch. 3: Racial Disparities Already Taking Shape In Covid Vaccination Rates - MSNBC - Air Date 2-6-21
Rachel Maddow looks at how even though people of color suffer disproportionately more from Covid-19, vaccination statistics are already showing disproportionately fewer people of color being inoculated
The Rev. Paul Abernathy on his work addressing vaccine skepticism in Black communities, starting by earning trust and recruiting vaccine trial volunteers in predominantly Black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.
"Israel actually is violating international law because it is denying its responsibility as an occupying power," says Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, member of the Palestinian Parliament "Israelis are getting the vaccines, and Palestinians are getting nothing."
As COVID-19 raged and pharmaceutical companies raced to develop a vaccine, Western media routinely asserted the premise that vaccine 'intellectual property' is a zero-sum possession that's been 'stolen' by malicious foreign actors & blackmarket criminals.
Ch. 7: Who Owns the COVID-19 Vaccines? - On the Media - Air Date 1-29-21
Dean Baker [@DeanBaker13], senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, on why intellectual property may be getting in the way of vaccine distribution.
As COVID-19 raged and pharmaceutical companies raced to develop a vaccine, Western media routinely asserted the premise that vaccine 'intellectual property' is a zero-sum possession that's been 'stolen' by malicious foreign actors & blackmarket criminals.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Vaccine priorities: political and ethical questions about who comes first, after health care workers. Gregg Gonsalves considers the arguments.
40+ African countries have been hit by second wave, and just six have received relatively small vaccine shipments. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC and Prevention, says the world faces "a moral catastrophe" without vaccine equity.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 10: Thoughts on "moral panic" - Christina
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 12: Final comments on corporations resisting reasonable regulation to avoid setting precedents
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
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- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast in which we shall learn |
| 0:07.3 | about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the US and around the world, as the legacies |
| 0:13.4 | of colonialism and racism predictably play themselves out between white and black in the |
| 0:18.8 | US, Israeli and Palestinian in the Middle East, and the global North and global South |
| 0:24.4 | more broadly. |
| 0:26.0 | The clips today are from Counter-Spend on the media, The Rachel Maddo Show, Democracy |
| 0:31.2 | Now, Citations Needed, and Start Making Sentence. |
| 0:41.4 | When you see phrases and stories like, the administration of vaccines has met with delays |
| 0:47.8 | and roadblocks. |
| 0:49.8 | That passive voice is safe, but the opposite of that isn't necessarily finger pointing, |
| 0:55.6 | in other word, we're seeing a lot. |
| 0:57.6 | It's just trying to understand where the breakdowns or flaws in the system are so they |
| 1:02.9 | can be addressed. |
| 1:04.7 | I think it's understood that this process was going to present challenges, as we say, |
| 1:09.9 | but what would you identify as the primary factors that have made it more confusing, more |
| 1:16.2 | chaotic than it needed to be? |
| 1:18.8 | Sure. |
| 1:19.8 | I always say this is not rocket science. |
| 1:21.6 | It's complicated, logistics, but not even that complicated. |
| 1:26.1 | The basic problem is a lack of central strategy. |
| 1:29.8 | You can argue that a lot of different kinds of algorithms should dictate who gets the |
| 1:35.4 | vaccine, and instead of deciding nationally with the best experts how we want to do it, |
... |
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