About a month ago, Spotlight reported that the U.S. administration were attempting to outbid for exclusive access to a potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by German firm, CureVac. They claimed that they weren’t proposing to keep the product exclusively for the US market but it’s clear that having exclusive rights to a vaccine for a killer virus responsible for a global pandemic would, of course, allow them to name their own price.
Now there’s been a further development as the BBC just reported that the US have been engaging in global piracy, stealing shipments of PPE destined for other countries. Apparently they’ve already pilfered 200,000 masks from the Germans, abducted a consignment of PPE that had already been ordered by the French by offering 3 times as much as the French had already agreed to pay (and paying in cash) and they also sent 20 cargo planes to China to swipe a consignment of PPE destined for Brazil. Spain and Canada have also complained about the US employing aggressive tactics to outbid them on PPE orders.
Oddly enough, try as I might, I couldn’t find this story on the BBC website or anywhere else on Google when I attempted to check sources. So, not wishing to be so easily defeated, I switched to the Ecosia search engine instead and bingo!…
Brazil and US clash over delivery of Chinese supplies of medical equipment (Merco Press, South Atlantic News Agency)
Coronavirus: Germany and France accuse US of taking face masks as international tensions rise (The Independent Newspaper)
US allies express dismay over US handling of global medical supply chain (Vox.com, Vox Media)
So, Trump’s idea of “America first” literally means American lives before the rest of the world and the US administration are prepared to use every dirty trick in the book to ensure that happens. You can now trust that, if it came down to a US/UK bidding scenario, it would be our NHS doctors, nurses and care workers who would have to go without (let’s face it, we wouldn’t have a cats chance in hell of outbidding the Americans) and it would be you or your gran, grandad, mum, dad, aunt, uncle, brother, sister or child who’s lives will be at risk as a result.
On a side note, probably best not to trust Google if your trying to source facts!
