A home-grown COVID-19 vaccination developed by Quebec-based Medicago will almost definitely not be approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), due to its links with cigarette producer Philip Morris International.
Medicago's "plant-based" Covifenz vaccine has been approved by Health Canada, and the Canadian government has ploughed some $173 million into its development, and is contracted to buy at least 20 million doses, with an option for 56 million more. But Medicago is about one-third owned by Philip Morris (maker of Marlborough cigarettes, among others), and WHO and UN have long had very strict and clear rules on engagement with the tobacco and arms industries, which the company and the Canadian government must have been aware of. It therefore becomes the first Western-manufactured COVID shot to be rejected by the WHO.
So, it looks like we are stuck with all this vaccine, which is expected to become available to the public this May, a year and a half after most other vaccines. We are already almost all fully-vaccinated at this point, with about 50% of the population triple-vaccinated, and vaccinations have slowed to a trickle (other than among 5-12 year olds, which were only recently approved for vaccinations). We really don't need another new vaccination, and who will voluntarily take an internationally-unauthorized vaccine with a 70% efficacy rate in preference to an internationally-recognized one with a 95% efficacy. Can anyone say "white elephant"?
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