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| Bill Gates Photo: Getty Images |
Hulu TV has several short documentaries dedicated to
vaccines and increasing education and awareness about them. Outer Limits The Vaccine was produced by MGM and is a 45-minute video about a
city where a deadly virus has killed most people, but a vaccine becomes
available. The plot thickens when only a limited number of vaccines are
available.
The other documentary that intrigued Vaccine Watch was The Vaccine According to Bill Gates.
This 50-minute presentation that was released in 2013 talks about the search
for a malaria vaccine and public health being funded by private funds. One of
Bill Gates’ personal goals is to eradicate malaria from the planet. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested over $200 million into funding the
research of the RTS,S malaria vaccine with the goal of protecting millions of
children and saving thousands of lives.
Research into a malaria vaccine is not new, and has been
going on for the last twenty-five years. Other researchers are also developing
several other malaria vaccines. Malaria is a difficult vaccine to develop because
of the radically different stages of the disease, both morphologically and
physiologically. It also mutates once in the bloodstream and builds resistance
to drugs. The different vaccines are targeting different stages of malaria in
humans; MSP3 is another of the vaccines being developed. Both RTS,S and MSP3 are
still developing the best way to increase efficacy rates of their respective
vaccines, which have been well below expectations.
Bill Gates notes, “…vaccines are a great technology and
investment.” The Gates Foundation is the second largest contributor to the
World Health Organization (WHO) behind the United States Government. Some have questioned private funds in
the realm of public health – and noted that the Gates Foundation began in 2000
while Microsoft was facing an anti-trust lawsuit from the U.S. Government.
Questions about the price of the malaria vaccine when it is developed have also
arisen, and the correlation was made that the price of the vaccine will be
related to the patent. Those who believe that private funds shouldn’t be involved
in public health state it’s a citizen’s right to have access to a vaccine. Even
at a profit of five percent, the development and sale of a malaria vaccine will
be very lucrative for the company that manufactures it. Gates counters that
technology should not just be for the richest, and that the vaccine will be
available for everyone.
The definitive results of the RTS,S vaccine will not be
known until 2014. The other vaccines continue to be researched as well. Vaccine
Watch supports the development of life-saving vaccines. In this situation,
private funds have allowed decades-long research to progress more quickly.
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