Moderna didn’t create its very effective vaccine by itself. The corporation, which has never brought out a product before, got $1.4 billion from the U.S. government to develop it. Uncle Sam paid Moderna another $8.1 billion for a half-billion doses.
More importantly it was scientists from the National Institutes of Health who helped design the genetic sequence used in Moderna’s vaccine. These NIH scientists were Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, Dr. Barney Graham and Dr. John Mascola.
Yet when Moderna filed its patent application in July for the vaccine these scientists weren’t mentioned. That’s particularly rotten in the case of Dr. Corbett, a Black woman.
It’s not just a matter of stealing credit. Moderna wanted government money and crucial help from NIH scientists but it didn’t want to share any of the profits.
It makes me so fucking sad that we live in a world like this for no reason other than that it greatly benefits an extremely small percentage of people and fucks over absolutely everyone else
