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Open thread May 30, 2017

Dan Crawford | May 30, 2017 12:57 pm

Tags: open thread Comments (3) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
3 Comments
  • Denis Drew says:
    May 30, 2017 at 5:11 pm

    I recently spoofed, comparing Gilead pharmaceutical’s extortionate price for its 99% hepatitis C cure to the ransom demands with the WANNACRY computer virus:

    GOTTACURE VIRUS
    Gilead has announced that a Hepatitis C virus has been introduced into the world and is now infecting 3 million Americans (and perhaps 125 million sufferers worldwide). Gilead wants $300 billion from the US alone for a 99% cure (costs $200 a patient to manufacture, half a billion dollars for all our sufferers).
    * * * * * *

    Just got a better idea: compare Gilead’s 99% cure to the anti-virus possessed by the “Umbrella Corporation.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(film_series) Ask Alice. :-O

  • Arne says:
    May 31, 2017 at 1:04 am

    Capitalism works when:

    1. GDP is increasing
    2. GDP per capita is increasing
    3. Poverty rates are decreasing
    4. My children are richer than I am
    5. A median worker shares in the benefits of increasing productivity
    6. Most people who grew up in poverty are able to get out of poverty
    7. Working 30 years is enough that you can retire without being in poverty
    8. Average income is increasing
    9. Median income is increasing
    10. Donald Trump is getting richer
    11. None of Donald’s companies declares bankruptcy
    12. People can afford to start their own business if they want
    13. People do not need to start their own business to be able to retire
    14. Only other countries get invaded

    Although I could not help throwing in some facetious choices, if #5 is a valid measure, then perhaps capitalism does not work.

  • Denis Drew says:
    May 31, 2017 at 2:38 pm

    Here we go again: this time it’s the Zika virus! (Last time Hepatitis — see above.)
    http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/30/529887446/states-fear-price-of-new-zika-vaccine-will-be-more-than-they-can-pay

    “The U.S. Army is planning to grant an exclusive license to the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, Inc. to manufacture and sell a Zika vaccine the Army developed last year.”

    “And that has Rebekah Gee, Louisiana’s secretary of health, worried about paying for it.

    “God forbid we have a Zika outbreak. We’re in the middle of a fiscal crisis, we’re already cutting services to people and we’re already potentially cutting our funding to fight the Zika virus,” Gee says.

    “If the Army goes through with its plan, she says, Sanofi could set a price for the vaccine at a level that Louisianans just won’t be able to afford.

    “Gee is among a growing number of public officials and activists who are demanding that Sanofi agree to show restraint when it sets the price for the vaccine, which was developed by the Army.
    * * *
    “Sanders and Knowledge Ecology point out that Sanofi has charged more in the U.S. for many medications, including the multiple sclerosis drug Aubagio, which costs Medicare more than $5,000, but in France it’s priced at about $745.”

    Where’s Alice?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Evil_(film_series)

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