With the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, world leaders have largely responded as you’d expect — with mass hysteria and tripling down on the same failed mitigation measures that didn’t work the last time. Yet, the reality of Omicron has done nothing to justify the reactions we’ve seen.
As South African doctors have shared, this variant appears to be very mild. As of this moment, I’m not even aware of anyone who has died from it, though, with pre-existing conditions being a factor, it’s certain someone eventually will. Still, Omicron does not appear to be the threat it was presented as.
That’s left big pharma scrambling. What if this new variant doesn’t require a new vaccine? What if it spreads far and wide enough that people don’t bother getting the current vaccine? That would mean a lot of lost future income, and they can’t have that. Thus, you get absolute idiocy like this from the CEO of Pfizer.
It sure seems like Albert Bourla is suggesting that it’d be better if the Delta variant, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people, stuck around instead of being supplanted by a variant that is far less deadly.
Frankly, I find his logic to be absolutely asinine. Why should a largely baseless fear of “mutations” override the information we have now that says Omicron is less deadly? Further, Bourla’s commentary eschews the fact that viruses often become less deadly as they evolve. That’s not always true, but it is the common path and it’s the one COVID-19 appears to be on based on the data we have so far.
Given that, the risk from Delta almost certainly outweighs any speculatory concern that some new super-variant could emerge, and common sense says that if COVID-19 is going to be endemic, and that’s a certainty, then humanity would benefit from a far less deadly strain becoming dominant. Yet, here’s the CEO of Pfizer saying the opposite. Are you paying attention yet?
At the end of the day, Bourla is a salesman. If COVID-19 evolves into a mild cold as Omicron may end up being, then we won’t need vaccines anymore, and that will represent the end of the gravy train for Pfizer. That’s the game here for these pharmaceutical giants — to keep that (mostly taxpayer-funded) coronavirus money flowing for as long as possible by any means necessary. In this case, that means Bourla making stupid claims that it’s better to have a more deadly variant of COVID-19 spreading around.
Profit rules all, and I’m fine with that on some level. Obviously, without the profit motive, the United States wouldn’t lead the world in the research and development of drugs and vaccines. Yet, we should also keep a clear eye anytime big pharma speaks. There’s a reason Pfizer has never publicly acknowledged natural immunity. They have one motivation, and it’s not to tell you the truth.