EP.881: Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala- Will the Coronavirus Vaccine be a Free, Global Public Good?

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Board Chair of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation as well as the Special Envoy got ACT Accelerator. She discusses the public-private partnerships working on a Coronavirus vaccine, what ACT (Access to COVID-19 Tools) Accelerator is and the work they are doing to develop vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics and make them accessible to all, why Africa’s Coronavirus death rate is so low, how the Coronavirus vaccine will be a public good and whether big pharma is involved for the sake of earning massive profits. Next, we speak to Alexander Zevin, author of ‘Liberalism at Large: The World According to The Economist’. He exposes The Economist’s deep involvement in promoting free trade and the Laissez-faire disaster in Ireland during the Irish famine, pushing Western foreign policy goals such as the Pinochet coup in Chile, to the coup in Iran in 1953, to US-backed regime change operations in Venezuela today. He also discusses the class dimension to the rise of The Economist magazine, and why it it is so highly sought after for advertising purposes.