ProPublica Reporting -- I Don't Want To "Oversell" The Premise Here -- But It Does Strike Me As Plausible.

The idea that a vaccine's development would be intentionally delayed -- while people are dying -- solely to milk more profit, for a multinational pharma. . . is a notion I cannot fully endorse as being. . . likely. But sadly, I do have to admit -- it is at least. . . plausible. Please do go read all of this, and come to your own conclusions. [I must say, a federal trial court opinion has found that Martin Shkreli ran a low-rent version of this caper -- for at least three years.]

In any event, here's the long form story -- certainly a thought provoking read -- and a bit:

. . .Several experts said that Gates MRI should test other adjuvants with the vaccine’s antigen. That includes Farrar, who said it would be “very wise” to start looking for a new adjuvant. He is one of the few people who has seen the agreement between Gates MRI and GSK as a result of his previous role as director of the Wellcome Trust. Farrar is now helping to lead a new TB Vaccine Accelerator Council at the WHO and said he believes one of the group’s roles would be to find solutions to any future problems with the adjuvant.

Gates MRI declined to answer when asked if it was considering testing other adjuvants with the vaccine’s antigen. GSK, along with several other scientists and regulators that ProPublica spoke with, expressed that using a new adjuvant would require redoing all of the long and expensive clinical trials.

U.S. government officials, meanwhile, are working to identify adjuvants that aren’t already tied up by major pharmaceutical companies. . . .

Onward. I'd like to hope that this cannot be true. But the realist inside me. . . sees it as. . . a possibility, with the vast number of greedy, small men (and they are almost all. . . men, in fact) now roaming the Earth. Ugh.

नमस्ते