MJJG and the for-profit paradigm

[Raphael Saltwood]

It all comes down to effective shopping, which stems from moral philosophy - use value over market value -

A Phase III clinical trial requires tens of thousands of human subjects and would cost around $50 million. But considering that despite Finland’s relative success in controlling the virus, the country has already had to borrow an additional €18 billion<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-finland-budget-idUSKBN2392PY> ($21 billion) to get by, the sum starts to look more like a drop in the ocean — adding up to about one quarter of a percent of the pandemic-induced public debt so far. The number becomes absurdly small when contrasted with the loss of life and economic devastation around the globe.

... (the open source vaccine may even be superior)

One of its practical advantages is that, unlike with RNA technology based on lipid nanoparticles<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-021-00281-4>, it can be stored in a regular fridge, potentially even at room temperature. This makes for easier and cheaper delivery logistics with no requirement for ultra-cold storage. Beyond its stability and the convenience of nasal administration, the vaccine may have other superior qualities to many currently on the market, Saksela’s team believes. “In order to fully stop the virus from spreading and to get rid of new mutations, we need to induce sterilizing immunity,” meaning that the virus no longer replicates within the body of an otherwise healthy person. Preliminary trials seem to confirm that the nasal spray accomplishes this. “With about half the people who are exposed, even if they’re symptomless, you find that the virus is still present in the upper respiratory system. So even if it’s on the way out, it still gets to run amok by the front door, making your immune system into a training partner of sorts.”

—- full disclosure: I’m not as yet entirely sure what he’s talking about here, or how their nasal spray would handle variants, or why it is that other vaccines do not accomplish “sterilizing immunity” - nor do I have comprehensive knowledge that his product does everything he claims.

As a liberal arts person, a moral philosopher, and a dedicated shopper, my instinct is to cheerfully survive what I can of the situation as it is while shopping for not just the best available, but also better things that may be, even if different or difficult.

I feel inspired to apply to the artistic project I’m currently looking at some of the ideas aroused by reading about this marvelous Finn:

So to wind this back around to MJJG -

The Jes Grew is in some respects like an open source vax. It’s beneficial and not amenable to being owned and parceled out. The mindset it induces is preferable to the Atonist mindset; even Atonists succumb to it!

The inferior product (hierarchy, strife, excessive competition) tries to prevail through suppression.

Like the Mu’tafikah, the Finnish government’s heart is in the right place, but they aren’t shopping wisely enough! As the ancient works of art are guarded by Atonists, & their retrieval becomes problematic in ways shown clearly by Mr Reed, so too the closed-source vaccines (& in a larger sense, all aspects of for-profit health care)(but especially pharmaceuticals because much of the research behind them is conducted in the public sector) are held closely by profit-takers and rent-seekers - although rather than steal, our commonwealths “merely” are forced to pay extortionate rates.

The Mu’tafikah would do well to support living artists instead; governments should include in-house solutions on their shopping list when they become available.

The Finnish scientist who developed the vaccine reminds me of LaBas, in that he has a good product with little market penetration.

Other governments, less progressive than Finland’s, remind me of Abdul Hamid: his vision of austerity, hard work, industrialism, causes him to destroy the Jes Grew text because it just isn’t serious enough.

Similarly, while in Finland at least there was a group in academia who was able to envision and create such a development, it looks like the (no doubt equally capable) research departments in other developed countries labor under a similar constricting vision that places them in an inferior position to non-publicly-funded groups that dole out big money, grants, lobbying to stand in between the producer and the consumer. Like Abdul Hamid’s miserabilist vision of “bad n——-s, n——-s bad” rising up to take a place in the panorama of badness that Jes Grew came to redeem!

________________________________
From: Raphael Saltwood <PlainMrBotanyB at outlook.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2021 4:41 AM
To: pynchon-l
Subject: np - painful pervasiveness of the for-profit paradigm

(Not sure where Pynchon would stand on this, but GR does seem to contain an objection to the Red Cross charging for coffee & donuts during the Battle of the Bulge.)

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/02/finland-vaccine-covid-patent-ip

A) open source vaccine, neat idea - not just idea but ready to go - from Finnish scientist developed & ready in May 2020

B) however, even Finland has closed down its public vaccine development bureau in 2002, & for some weird reason last year couldn’t find $55m budget to test the open source product - yet will pay closed source companies multi $billions

C) The technical description of vaccine production in the article is better than most of the other oversimplifications that I’ve seen (not that it offends my non-existent expertise less, just that it was clear, concise & a pleasure to read)

D) it was a nasal spray - so is there an intrinsic reason why all the big pharma choose to administer much more invasive my?

E) mind you, I’m still grateful for the ones I got!