As an increasingly reluctant reader of the
Guardian, I’ve found it interesting to compare and contrast the way pharmaceutical companies are portrayed in the paper before and after the emergence of vaccine options.
Prior to the pandemic the paper took a dim view of the industry, for example in
this editorial from early 2019:
The Grauniad said:
Companies blame the cost of [drug] development and say they need to recoup their investment before rivals are able to pile in with generic competitors. They are less keen to acknowledge their often sky-high profits, the fact that some put more into
share buy-backs than research and development, and the reality that many new offerings are
“me-too” variations rather than game-changing innovations. Patients and shareholders are likely to draw the line that distinguishes a fair reward from greedy profiteering in very different places...
In the early months of the pandemic, to be fair, they maintained their stance, for example
here
Ara Darzi in the Graun said:
When it comes to the pharmaceutical companies, how should we judge their response? They, after all, hold the key to ending the pandemic. Yet... their behaviour has more in common with the supermarket hoarders than the neighbourhood groups.
But since the emergence of efficacious vaccine candidates, there’s a lot of gushing articles
like this praising pharma companies and their scientists.
The Grauniad said:
Scientists appear to have performed an amazing feat, the rest of us must do our best too... The inspiring news that a Covid vaccine
appears within reach, with interim results showing the Pfizer/BioNTech candidate has 90% efficacy in protecting people from illness, reflects the extraordinary efforts of scientists this year. The speed with which this one has been developed – with others
close behind – is remarkable.
What’s prompted this massive change in tone from ‘evil racketeering multinational conglomerates’ to ‘saviour of all mankind’?
Is it because
Guardian staffers are still jumping in the road to avoid walking past people and fumigating their shopping? Have they started to believe their alarmist Covid coverage so much that they are living for the day they can troop in a Hazmat suit into a draughty Brutalist town hall to be given a product by a company they spent years slating?
The lack of consistency just grates, in a pandemic where the rich are getting richer and socioeconomic deprivation is becoming more and more widespread you’d think a left-wing paper would be campaigning to ensure big pharma corporations provide fair and equitable vaccine access to all, addressing problems like unaffordable drug pricing, pharma monopolies and rich countries’ vaccine nationalism as they scramble to buy up all potential vaccine doses.
