Are Vaccines the New Military-Industrial Complex?

One of the last things Eisenhower did as president was give a speech warning about the nation’s military-industrial complex.

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” Eisenhower said in his 1961 farewell address to the nation.

Whether you believe the military-industrial complex—the power it wields and the money it makes—is real or not, one thing is certain: The United Stated has spent extended periods of time engaging in military exercises in other countries since Ike’s speech. We spent more than 10 tears in Vietnam and 20 years in Afghanistan. We invaded Iraq in 2003 and remained in force until 2011. Today we still have 2,500 troops there.

The point is, a lot of people have made a lot of money since Eisenhower’s warning.

Today we have a new moneymaker: COVID vaccines. Leftist politicians are pushing the vaccines with a dedication that would impress a Jehovah’s Witness.

FACT-O-RAMA! The U.S. has administered 388 million vaccine doses. There have been 6.06 billion doses administered worldwide. Cha-CHING!

Today, 82.4% of the nation has been at least partially vaccinated. Democrat leaders have used guilt, bribes, and, finally, threats, to get people to bend their knees and raise their sleeves.

The entire nation has yet to be partially vaccinated and the CDC is already pushing booster shots. Pharmaceutical companies are racing to get approval for children’s vaccines, even though kids rarely get seriously ill from the China virus. Thus far, 461 American children have died from COVID. Comorbidities in children are unknown because the CDC isn’t recording the comorbidities of kids who die of COVID-19.

This vaccine and booster pushes come at a time when statistics out of Israel show that fully vaccinated people make up a majority of new COVID cases. Almost half of the new COVID cases in the UK are among the vaccinated.

Democrats are pimping a vaccine for a virus that is unlikely to kill most of us, especially kids. Data from England and Israel show that the vaccine doesn’t even keep you from contracting and spreading the virus.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are making billions of dollars, most of which comes from the federal government.

Price

Different vaccine-producing companies charge different rates, usually corresponding to how much federal money they took to research the vaccine. The following price list is per dose:

Pfizer: $19.50
Moderna: $15.00
Johnson and Johnson: $10
AstraZeneca: $4
Novavax: $16

Pfizer’s price falls under what is referred to as “pandemic pricing.” They expect to raise the price to $150-$175 per dose in the future.

Some countries pay different prices.

The Shkreli Award

The “Shkreli Award” is a shame accolade given by a think tank called the Lown Institute to companies and people who engage in ridiculous profiteering off of medical products. It is named after Martin Shkreli, who famously purchased a company that makes drugs to help AIDS patients and boosted the price by 5,000%.

Though almost every vaccine producer received a Shkreli Award, the Lown Institute levied two on Moderna for taking so much in government funds to research and develop their vaccine AND for setting their price so high.

Operation Warp Speed

Research and development costs for healthcare and pharmaceutical companies are among the highest of any industry.

President Trump authorized almost $10 billion for various pharmaceutical companies to create and deliver a pre-determined number of vaccine doses, thus greatly helping the pharmaceutical giants offset their costs, putting pressure on the pharma companies to deliver.

Number of Doses

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on June 9, “As he (Biden) said in his joint session, we were the ‘arsenal of democracy’ in World War II. We’re going to be the ‘arsenal of vaccines’ over this next period to help end the pandemic.”

On June 10, Biden announced a plan to purchase 500 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine (enough to vaccinate 250 million people) and donate them to 92 low- and lower-middle-income nations, including South Korea (I didn’t know they were a lower-middle-income country) as well as nations in Africa.

The doses will be distributed by a humanitarian organization called COVAX, which is operated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as Gavi, CEPI, and UNICEF.

Cost: $9.75 billion

FACT-O-RAMA! Last year at this time Moderna’s stock was trading at $69 a share. Today it is at $430.

But Wait, There’s More

Vaccines and boosters have become a way of life for almost every nation on the planet—except Sweden. They seem to be clown-slapping COVID. No lockdowns, no mandates, no COVID-manic-panic, and, most importantly, no vaccine-industrial complex.