Red Cross:  Vaccine Makers Value Profits Over Humanity 

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says it is clear that profits are trumping humanity when it comes to the decisions made by vaccine producers when it is time to distribute their products. 

The IFRC statement was a response to a report in The New York Times that said most doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine produced at a plant in South Africa are being exported to Europe.  Jagan Chapagain, secretary-general of the IFRC, said, “We have long been calling for companies to consider manufacturing doses in regions that remain inequitably served of COVID-19 vaccines. That they should then be exported to regions that have vaccinated a majority of their population is incomprehensible. The African continent is still the most underserved in terms of receiving doses -- barely 2% of people across the region have been vaccinated.”  In the United States, the Biden administration is to require that all staff in nursing homes and care facilities that treat Medicare and Medicaid patients be vaccinated or the homes could lose the federal funding that helps pay the costs of patient care.