Hey, you're listening to Unlimited Hangout, I'm your host Whitney Webb.

Since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout began, media outlets, analysts, and journalists that

identify as progressive, both in the mainstream and independent media, have framed their criticisms

of this controversial vaccination campaign and the big pharma profiteering there within,

largely around concerns about vaccine inequity in the global south.

To these voices, frequently seen featured in outlets such as Democracy Now, Jacobin, and

Common Dreams, among other progressive sites, the criticism is more or less like this.

The chief manifestation of big pharma's corruption and the context of COVID-19 vaccines

is their lack of vaccine sales to the global south, with those populations being eager

for vaccines if only they were made significantly more affordable and available.

Oddly, other forms of profiteering by big pharma related to this vaccination campaign,

the role of the military and the vaccination campaign and also blatant corruption within

the FDA and NIH are more often than not treated as illegitimate criticisms by outlets that

would normally pounce on the opportunity to expose corporate capture of regulatory agencies

and all manifestations of the corporate profit motive, or perhaps another industry like oil

and gas, for example.

However, as myself and my guest today will be discussing vaccine inequity is really

a much smaller issue than a lot of these outlets and journalists have suggested, while the

claim does remain a safe take, friendly to left-leaning sensibilities, even official

sources have been forced to note in recent days that vaccine supply issues are hardly the

main cause of low-vaccine uptake on the African continent, specifically as there is a documented

minimal interest in the vaccines from the continent's population, including a majority

...