An experimental COVID-19 treatment pill, called molnupiravir and being developed by Merck & Co Inc and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP. (Photo by Merck & Co Inc/Handout via REUTERS)

 

Common sense, whether it’s humanitarian or economic, dictates that if the world has found a drug that can make the coronavirus a lot less scary, the treatment should be made available to everyone as soon, as cheap and as equitable as possible. Good news is that the world is probably on the verge of finding such a drug, but that common sense could be severely tested.

 

Molnupiravir, which was announced just recently but has become a household name right now, is being advertised as a possible new pill that can turn COVID-19 into some kind of nuisance, one that disturbs or annoys people who have it rather than frightens them to death. One major American news outlet has called it a “game changer”, one that could end the worldwide lockdown really soon.

 

The question is whether the world, when it is “reopened”, will remain the same old one. By that, it’s a world where many people in the medical profession, those aspiring to be in it, or the parents wanting their children to be in it, are motivated by foreseeable wealth whereas the chances to save lives are secondary.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/covid-19-pill-may-revive-old-bitter-debate/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2021-10-21

 

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Big Pharma control so much more than many people know or think.

They have their hands in everyone's pockets, especially politicians, and now online media.

They will drag this covid thing out as long as possible, which will basically be forever. Can you imagine making a product where the whole world needs it, and you decide the price!

43 minutes ago, 2long said:

Can you imagine making a product where the whole world needs it

No, but I can imagine making a product and forcing it upon the whole world whether they need it or not.

 

Cha-Ching!

56 minutes ago, 2long said:

Big Pharma control so much more than many people know or think.

They have their hands in everyone's pockets, especially politicians, and now online media.

They will drag this covid thing out as long as possible, which will basically be forever. Can you imagine making a product where the whole world needs it, and you decide the price!

And too many fall for conspiracy theories way too easily.

11 minutes ago, Airalee said:

No, but I can imagine making a product and forcing it upon the whole world whether they need it or not.

 

Cha-Ching!

In this case, it's desperately needed!

8 minutes ago, Jeffr2 said:

And too many fall for conspiracy theories way too easily.

which drug was ever forced upon anybody ever and by what means?

2 minutes ago, ozimoron said:

which drug was ever forced upon anybody ever and by what means?

Exactly. Too many fall for ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Oh look it’s another conspiracy thread.

4 hours ago, 2long said:

Can you imagine making a product where the whole world needs it, and you decide the price!

There will be more than one such drug, in fact this one might be deemed useless long before people appreciate depending on the others and when the trials finish.

 

There has always been the debate about the need for drugs, their pricing and the copyright issues. Why are some drugs cheaper in some countries than others. Classic example is The disparity between some drugs prices in the US and those same drugs in Canada.

 

The issue about doctors and health care staff being what they are and the reasons behind it has also been an issue for a long time. Since barbers were surgeons. No nurses, no aesthetics, no pills, no injections. Medicine has moved on, greed has not, and, even before the UK's NHS, some doctors were where they are because they made money. 

I recall my mother's doctor, an NHS General Practitioner, being left a private patient's Rolls Royce car in her will. 

This is a discussion that's prevalent in UK, at the .moment and a long time before. 

In the GP practise where I was registered, not one GP worked full time. Most of them worked 2 1/2 days or 3 days at most. They were not working in other GP practises, so they were either being paid sufficient for their needs to be working these reduced hours, or in private practise.

Another story. My aunt had dementia and was seen by an NHS doctor who said she could not have a replacement knee, as she would not be a able to remember to the do the required exercises. My aunt, in one of her more lucid moments, said she would go private. The doctor's response was: it wouldn't matter as he would be the doctor she would see. NHS or private, seems that they are the same doctors.

16 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

Exactly. Too many fall for ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Yeah..........let's just swallow everything government and big business tell us without questioning it. Because they're always so straight with us, right?

4 hours ago, roquefort said:

Yeah..........let's just swallow everything government and big business tell us without questioning it. Because they're always so straight with us, right?

Ummm....how about all credible doctors? Scientists? I don't listen to government or businesses. Come on.

6 hours ago, Scott Tracy said:

There has always been the debate about the need for drugs, their pricing and the copyright issues. Why are some drugs cheaper in some countries than others. Classic example is The disparity between some drugs prices in the US and those same drugs in Canada.

 

The issue about doctors and health care staff being what they are and the reasons behind it has also been an issue for a long time. Since barbers were surgeons. No nurses, no aesthetics, no pills, no injections. Medicine has moved on, greed has not, and, even before the UK's NHS, some doctors were where they are because they made money. 

I recall my mother's doctor, an NHS General Practitioner, being left a private patient's Rolls Royce car in her will. 

This is a discussion that's prevalent in UK, at the .moment and a long time before. 

In the GP practise where I was registered, not one GP worked full time. Most of them worked 2 1/2 days or 3 days at most. They were not working in other GP practises, so they were either being paid sufficient for their needs to be working these reduced hours, or in private practise.

Another story. My aunt had dementia and was seen by an NHS doctor who said she could not have a replacement knee, as she would not be a able to remember to the do the required exercises. My aunt, in one of her more lucid moments, said she would go private. The doctor's response was: it wouldn't matter as he would be the doctor she would see. NHS or private, seems that they are the same doctors.

You’ll appreciate the NHS more when it’s gone.

What an odd, ill-informed op-ed piece.

 

The writer's finale...

 

After all, the cavemen who discovered fire, or the “crazy” scientists who created or harnessed electricity, or the experimental folks who attempted to fly certainly did not do it for the money.

 

 

Doofus.

 

3 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

Ummm....how about all credible doctors? Scientists? I don't listen to government or businesses. Come on.

Try looking up the Great Barrington Declaration.

1 hour ago, roquefort said:

Try looking up the Great Barrington Declaration.

Sad you fall for dodgy junk like that. Amazing actually.

 

Fact check it and get back to us. Credible sites only ,please .

Post from an unapproved source has been reported and removed.

 

3 hours ago, Jeffr2 said:

Sad you fall for dodgy junk like that. Amazing actually.

 

Fact check it and get back to us. Credible sites only ,please .

So can you explain why all the Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge professors that signed it are less credible than the "experts" wheeled out by your government? Suggest you do some fact checking of your own.

I have never been a fan of big pharma.

In the US drug prices are way more expensive than in other countries.

In theory I might have stocked up on meds when in Thailand and brought them back to US. Of course, only when I could do so without breaking applicable laws.

But in this pandemic,  for the vaccines, thank you pharma.

 

12 hours ago, roquefort said:

So can you explain why all the Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge professors that signed it are less credible than the "experts" wheeled out by your government? Suggest you do some fact checking of your own.

You really need to fact check that.  It's about as dodgy as it gets, and several of the authors have retracted their initial support.  Go figure...LOL