World leaders held a virtual meeting on Monday, May 4, to raise funds for COVID-19 vaccine research. Notably absent were any representatives from the United States or Russia. Some of the wealthier governments pledged a total of about $8 billion.
We’ve been living with the coronavirus for months and only now they’re doing this? And without the U.S. and Russia? It seems like world leaders have a death wish for their people. And especially Trump and Putin.
Even if French President Macron and others who participated wanted to give the impression that they were cooperating, in fact they pledged to give money to companies and research universities in their own countries to compete with those in other countries. It is obvious that the world as a whole is facing a common enemy in the coronavirus. Why not coordinate the research of the world’s best scientists from all countries? That would save time, resources, and lives!
But the world’s so-called leaders are each going their own way, hoping that the scientists in their own nation will be the first to develop a vaccine. Then they can sell it to the rest of the world.
It takes a capitalist mind to focus on making big bucks off of a global pandemic! The fact that Trump and Putin refused to participate shows that they don’t even bother to pretend to cooperate on what may be the most urgent medical research in history. This system always puts profits over people.
Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons
