I Screenshot most of the directions for you because most of it couldn’t fit in the paper details box, but i also added the directions for the post work here:
Review the cited source material selected by Team Five along with their posted summary and questions. Consider whether the analysis or opinion expressed in the source material is sound and persuasive. Is it based on an accurate understanding of the facts? Post a short statement with your reaction to the source material.
Step Two
Choose at least one of the questions and prepare, edit, and post a careful and thoughtful response to the question in a paragraph or two. You may cite outside sources or course materials in your response.
Step Three
DISCUSSION FORUM:
For this week’s discussion forum we would like you to consider the idea of business and politics and how they intertwine.
The source material for the discussion is:
As we all continue to live through the Covid-19 Pandemic, it is becoming increasingly apparent that a vaccine will be the only way to put this virus in the rear-view mirror. The creation of the vaccine might seem out of our hands, but it is our hands, or rather our taxpayer money, that is funding the R&D for these companies to develop it. The NOW THIS video begins with Trump’s HHS Secretary, Alex Azar, who refuses to say that a vaccine will be affordable. He says that it is out of the government’s control, and at the moment he is correct. The government relinquished pricing control of the vaccine to the pharmaceutical companies even though the government has given more than $10billion in taxpayer dollars to pharmaceutical companies (Jorge, 2020). With the announcement of Operation Warp Speed in the summer, which has given even more government support to these companies, the tie between industry and government is stronger now than ever. The allowance for companies to continue to increase prices of life saving medications has been a hotly contested issue for decades, but as we now face a virus that will continue to spread until millions are vaccinated, it seems ever more important to reconsider the control the government has relinquished on pricing of these medicines.
We chose these sources because we wanted to stimulate a discussion topical to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is undoubtably effecting everyone in this class in some way. We often think of corruption happening in other countries, where industry and government and sometimes indistinguishable, but even here in America we deal with the trouble of looking at this line that is often blurred. The founders of this country thought it important to have some boundary between the two, but in these unique times what do you think is ethical?
Questions
1. Is it unethical that taxpayers who paid part of the R&D budget for the development of this vaccine, might not be able to afford it once it is released?
2. How do you feel about the drug companies using tax dollars to create these drugs and/or vaccines and then placing a patent on it so they can charge whatever they want?
3. Should there be regulation on pricing for government funded projects/industries? Why or why not?
