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Coronavirus - Part Two.

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Thanks, @West 77. I wasn't picking an argument, as you say - merely pointing out that a random series of characters isn't much use without explanation.

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1 hour ago, West 77 said:

I don't think anyone was picking an argument.  The graph you chose to provide gives a false impression of the real situation.  

And based on false statistics. 

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4 hours ago, L00b said:

No, simply informing the debate a little more, in relation to the sub-topic of vaccine nationalism/triumphalism.

 

You can choose to read that post, or ‘coded’ whatever into that post -because I happened to post it rather than another- however you want: them’s the facts just the same.


Giz a shout when you feel like playing the ball sometime.

 

 

 

Pick the “facts” as it suits,and also feel free to chose which ball you wish to play from the ensuing comments.

I have no idea what the various uptake is or will be when vaccine is available around the EU countries,but thus far in the U.K. the uptake is over 93% for 75 plus age group which seems pretty good to me.

I hope that there will be no delays in receiving the second jab by the due dates.

I have great sympathy for  those having to play catch up as a result of a more guarded initial approach by their medical advisers and political leaders,and I hope for more cooperation and less point scoring.

<sigh> x2

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We must not allow ourselves to be distracted. The important elements of the statement I posted yesterday are shown in bold type below:

 

Boris Johnson would like us to believe that capitalism and greed enabled the success of the UK vaccine project. In fact, following the private sector catastrophy of the PPE scandal and the devastating failure of the promised world-beating outsourced test and trace project, the vaccine success is due entirely to social democratic mechanisms - up front public investment to encourage innovation in a sector that prefers to sell established staples - SSRIs, analgesics and nicotine patches; the use of legacy public education institutions; and supply of the finished product 'at cost' rather than to shareholder advantage, administered via the NHS. But don't expect these facts to be celebrated on the front page of the Daily Mail or explained bythe BBC.

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Two members of staff at a South Devon care home have been arrested in connection with a Covid-19 outbreak that is believed to have caused multiple deaths.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson is hiding under a table, just in case the police knock on his door.

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We are urged by free market economists and their media champions to accept the notion that entrepreneurs are brave investors, creating wealth and jobs. They are not. In fact they are nothing more than profit seekers, extracting wealth for themselves, and causing social and economic devastation in the process. At the heart of free market economics is the mechanism known as 'maximising shareholder value'. Businesses are not interested in any other contributors to an enterprise than their executives and their shareholders - they seek to employ any necessary labour at the lowest cost, to drive down the price they pay their suppliers and distributors, to cheat their taxes and to discharge their waste as cheaply as possible, for free if possible, thereby polluting the environment, contributing to global heating, etc. They don't create wealth, just hoard it. All these notions are obscured by the ideology known as neoliberalism, which pushes the myth of the brave, fearless, independent individual, bringing prosperity where there was none.

 

The UK vaccine project is instructive since its success featured the reverse of neoliberal doctrine - up-front public investment, public research in the university laboratory, and 'at cost' delivery (i.e. no immediate profit to the manufacturer). And it's roll-out is being successfully handled by the NHS and it's taxpayer funded, established, public, institutional structure. These social-democratic principles are what facilitated the astrazenica/Oxford achievements, and the very success of the project gives an ideal example of how sensible economic policy can contribute to democratic society rather than exhaust it and drive the world to ruin.

 

For a fascinating account of this theme see Mariana Mazzucato, The Value of Everything: Making and taking in the global economy, Penguin (London, 2019)

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If that reply above is in reply to my post #4620, it is a total failure.

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As I pointed out, the theme I outline is more fully addressed by Mariana Mazzucato in her 2019 book, The Value of Everything: Making and taking in the global economy.

 

There is a word essential to all users of social media, 'sealioning'. This is explained by Wikipedia thus:

 

In 2014, the word "sea lioning" (also rendered "sea-lioning" or "sealioning") was coined based on a Wondermark [comic] strip, referring to a type of Internet trolling which consists of bad-faith requests for evidence, or repeated questions, in an attempt to derail a discussion or to wear down the patience of one's opponent. In the comic strip, a character expresses a dislike of sea lions, and a sea lion immediately appears, following the character around to repeatedly ask why that is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wondermark

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1 hour ago, Staunton said:

We are urged by free market economists and their media champions to accept the notion that entrepreneurs are brave investors, creating wealth and jobs. They are not. In fact they are nothing more than profit seekers, extracting wealth for themselves, and causing social and economic devastation in the process. At the heart of free market economics is the mechanism known as 'maximising shareholder value'. Businesses are not interested in any other contributors to an enterprise than their executives and their shareholders - they seek to employ any necessary labour at the lowest cost, to drive down the price they pay their suppliers and distributors, to cheat their taxes and to discharge their waste as cheaply as possible, for free if possible, thereby polluting the environment, contributing to global heating, etc. They don't create wealth, just hoard it. All these notions are obscured by the ideology known as neoliberalism, which pushes the myth of the brave, fearless, independent individual, bringing prosperity where there was none.

 

The UK vaccine project is instructive since its success featured the reverse of neoliberal doctrine - up-front public investment, public research in the university laboratory, and 'at cost' delivery (i.e. no immediate profit to the manufacturer). And it's roll-out is being successfully handled by the NHS and it's taxpayer funded, established, public, institutional structure. These social-democratic principles are what facilitated the astrazenica/Oxford achievements, and the very success of the project gives an ideal example of how sensible economic policy can contribute to democratic society rather than exhaust it and drive the world to ruin.

 

For a fascinating account of this theme see Mariana Mazzucato, The Value of Everything: Making and taking in the global economy, Penguin (London, 2019)

I agree entirely. Well said.

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6 minutes ago, Anna B said:

I agree entirely. Well said.

Me too Anna, brilliant post.

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4 hours ago, West 77 said:

 All vaccines manufactured anyway in the World rely on global  imports of components in order for to make a vaccine.  

Indeed. I heard it mentioned on the radio that a key fatty acid component of the Pfizer vaccine is sourced from a company in Yorkshire.

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