Author ORCID Identifier
Date Available
12-17-2023
Year of Publication
2023
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
College
Arts and Sciences
Department/School/Program
Geography
Advisor
Dr. Matthew Wilson
Abstract
Coronavirus vaccines saved millions of lives, but experts estimate that the suboptimal production and inequitable distribution of shots resulted in nearly 3 million preventable Covid-19 deaths in 2021 and 2022 as well as millions of indirect deaths during the pandemic. These avoidable fatalities are inseparable from the grotesquely unequal vaccination rates between rich and poor nations. Dose hoarding by high-income countries contributed to vaccine inequality, but the “vaccine apartheid” inflicted on low-income countries reflects an even more fundamental injustice: knowledge hoarding by profit-maximizing pharmaceutical corporations—aided and abetted by wealthy governments—which deprived generic manufacturers of the right to produce additional lifesaving jabs and led to artificial scarcity and needless suffering. The knowledge underlying Covid-19 vaccines stems from billions of dollars in public funding, but corporate-friendly intellectual property rules enabled Big Pharma to monopolize these technologies in what amounts to a lethal manifestation of “accumulation by dispossession.”
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2023.483
Recommended Citation
Stancil, Kenneth, "Hoarding Lifesaving Knowledge While Millions Die: The Political Economy of Global Covid-19 Vaccine Apartheid" (2023). Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 97.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/geography_etds/97
