• geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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      14 hours ago

      Trying to get a monopoly on vaccines through a “nonprofit” and do neocolonialism.

      https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/

      Global health czar Bill Gates had other thoughts. Maintaining his steadfast commitment to intellectual property rights, Gates pushed for a plan that would permit companies to hold exclusive rights to lifesaving medicines, no matter how much they benefited from public funding.

      Given the enormous influence Gates has in the global public health world, his vision ultimately won out in the Covax program—which enshrines monopoly patent rights and relies on the charitable whims of rich countries and pharmaceutical giants to provide vaccines to most of the world. A chorus of support from pharmaceutical companies and the Trump administration didn’t hurt.

      Should we be surprised that a monopolist-turned-philanthropist maintains his commitment to monopoly patent rights as a philanthropist too?

      Bill Gates is about as “nonprofit” as OpenAI.

      • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        The WTO adopted partial patent waivers in 2022, many nations allowed complete vaccine patent exemption, and very soon after the Bill Gates statement your article cites the Gates Foundation made a full reversal and endorsed it.

      • Jourei@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        Aight, yeah, thank you! Gates isn’t that much in the headlines for the things he does, I remember him owning/buying a ton of land too now?