Greed is the problem, not the solution, for vaccine woes

Boris Johnson claimed the UK’s vaccine breakthrough was brought about by ‘giant corporations that wanted to give good returns to shareholders’. But nothing could be further from the truth.

On the anniversary of the United Kingdom’s first lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic, as candles were lit in doorways and the country mourned 125,000 deaths, the prime minister was in the mood for gloating. “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends,” Boris Johnson reportedly told Conservative MPs, before pleading “forget I said that”. The timing of the comments was distasteful in the extreme as countries across the world are struggling to find any vaccines, while Britain has acquired several times the doses it needs by bypassing the international bodies meant to ensure a fair global allocation. But more worrying was the warped understanding revealed by the remark of what is actually behind Britain’s successful vaccine rollout.