By ANSELMO PESSOA NETO*

Considerations in favor of vaccines and breaking patents

Preambular warning: I am vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, two doses of AstraZeneca, one booster of Pfizer. I have a complete vaccination card, my children received all the vaccines prescribed throughout their lives, in short, I am pro-vax!

The public debate is so disjointed that the above clarification is necessary.

Well, I think you've already guessed that I'm going into swampy terrain. I'm definitely going.

We are starting the third year of the pandemic, all the scenarios have already been painted and repainted, the predictions have been announced, the bets and credibility have been placed on the table. Supporters formed: on one side, the good ones; on the other, those of evil. As in any important match where emotion counts, the sides clash. It's the emotion that's at stake, it's the passion that's on the pitch.

And this is what we see in relation to Covid, in the world and in Brazil. As the national sport is football, our metaphor is football. And in football there are fans and fans. In fact, for a group of fans what matters least is football, the field, the game. They are transfixed on the bleachers, on the side table, on the opposing crowd, on the skirmish.

And our metaphor would end there. If we lived in a minimally healthy world, a disease like Covid that stopped, or almost stopped the world, that destabilized countries and people could not be compared with any sport and its fans. Illness does not ask for partisanship, ideologization, cheerleading. Illness asks for treatment, asks for a cure.

Issues that those who believe they play for the good team do not want to discuss: the vaccine arrived and did not solve it, the pandemic continues. For those who bet all their chips on the first and any vaccines that emerged, it was difficult to remake the speech. So the way out is to double the bet: let's go for the third dose, but now in a more cautious way: nothing is guaranteed. Third dose and all the care before any dose, that's the united order of the good class. The herd immunity that the psychopath who governs us intended to achieve with slaughter would be achieved with 70% of those vaccinated. In Brazil, we have not yet reached 70% of those vaccinated with the second dose, but in countries that even reached 90% with the second dose, the disease is back and with it the panic. Since data is changing, check here.

And in the cheerleading fight, the game is being played, on purpose, so that no one, at least in the public, shouts: follow the money! It's like when we're with a relative in a private hospital: the family, embarrassed, doesn't want to talk about money, that would be a sign of a lack of compassion. And some hospital environments know very well how to create this embarrassment, we know, they know, but almost nobody screams. The mantra is: dying or not, he will pay here on earth (here in the hospital). The jump I just took in my reasoning is the same as when the mess sets in and you want to understand what's at stake and no one has the answer, you scream: who's taking it?

Knowing where the money is going, and the honest with themselves do, is the pandemic situation under control? No of course not. But at least the field is clear for real play. The fate of humanity rests in the hands of an industry that has never, ever been philanthropic, and this is being purposefully hidden. The good ones don't want to discuss this, as if this were a distraction that could disrupt the match against the pandemic, but no.

At the current stage of SARS-CoV-2 development, it can only win a war effort, with national armies – which is different from mercenary armies. Perhaps it goes without saying, but with purposely organized counter-information disorganizing the square, here we go: they are private interests, hired, yes, in the same way that mercenary armies are hired – under the scrutiny of the stock exchanges – the fighters on behalf of nations.

I learned from experts on the subject that each type of vaccine is produced on its own platform. Brazil and the European Union invested in the technology and platform of a vaccine that resisted little and was never approved in the United States: that of AstraZeneca (why was it never approved in the United States? Nobody knows and few ask the question). The state of São Paulo invested in a technology and a platform that, this one, was practically deactivated and not even its own “owners” defend it: that of CoronaVac. Sovereign reigns in the Western world almost only a single vaccine: Pfizer. Pfizer's marketing department is unparalleled in efficiency, this has already been proven! In this third year of the pandemic, are we going to play like the first and second? In a losing team, don't you move? Is it marketing or one or several valid vaccines that we want?

My roar: science, men and women of good will in science, need to get together, exchange ideas, exchange barbs, organize discourse and, above all, organize knowledge: what we already know and what we still don't know about the SARS-CoV-2?

Humanity at risk, locked up in many countries, and patents not being discussed? Is there anything more good than a vaccine for everyone? And again, maybe it goes without saying, but as you don't know, go there, now with other words: vaccines are paid for! In Brazil, probably with the balance of payments surplus that agribusiness provides the country. What if there was no such money, eh?

And I didn't talk about the evil crowd. And would it?

Final warning: it's not just Pfizer's marketing department that is absolutely efficient. Another department at BIG PHARMAs is very efficient, check here.

In the world of counterinformation, it is better to reaffirm: I am in favor of vaccines and the breaking of patents!

* Anselmo Pessoa Neto is professor of Italian literature at UFG. Author, among other books, of Italo Calvino: the must-see passages (UFG).