Doctors Without Borders Might Kill Someone

     Pneumonia accounts for 15% of all deaths of children under 5 years old. And don't worry, this blog post gets worse. The organization Doctors Without Borders just refused a million free pneumonia vaccines. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer offered up a million free vaccines as a donation to Doctors Without Borders as a show of humanitarianism. The decline of the offer comes as a shock to many. After all, a million of lives could be saved. But the organization is not going to budge when it comes to this issue.

  The reason Doctors Without Borders is so set in their decision is because they believe that the pharmaceutical companies are price gouging and making profits off of life saving drugs in third world countries. The price of the vaccination that Pfizer is offering Doctors Without Borders carries from country to country. When Doctors Without Borders was able to purchase it they were paying 60 euros a dose. 

     Last year poor countries like Tunisia and Morocco were paying $63.70 and $67.30 respectively. France on the other hand was paying $58.40. And to make matters worse, 3-4 doses are required for an effective treatment. Why are poorer countries paying more for a vaccine that would have more impact on their quality of life? Pfizer is a multi billion dollar company. The pneumonia vaccine alone makes them $6.245 billion in revenue. Money and profit is not a limiting factor to Pfizer and neither is production cost. They sold the vaccine to Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization for only $9.15 for an entire treatment regiment. 

     Pfizer isn't the first company to put profits first though. Nestle is another company that has been in hot water over their "goodwill" missions. Nestle, in short, gave baby  formula to Africans in desperate need. The babies developed a dependence on this formula once their mothers were unable to produce milk. Then Nestle jacked up the price of formula to make a profit. Also in its quest to be humanitarian Nestle was quoted saying, "access to water is not a public right."

     Is Doctors without borders doing the right thing though? This protest is a costly decision to make. The protest potentially just allowed thousands of people to die. Is it worth it? Is setting a precedent going to make these vaccines become any cheaper? I think that Doctors Without Borders may have a point though.

     Price gouging and trying to profit off of life saving drugs does not only happen overseas, but it happens right here in our own back yard. The average cost of the pneumonia vaccine for the U.S. citizen is $136. Remember that 3-4 doses are needed for a successful treatment. Another situation that comes to mind is about EpiPens. The cost was $100 and as of late the cost is now more than $600. Six, hundred, dollars. For the only thing that can save some of these people. If the EpiPens are not available to these people, they will die. Period.

     Let's be real, this is bullshit. People need EpiPens to live. People need pneumonia vaccines to live. Why is the first goal of these companies to make a profit? Why isn't it to save people? These companies are lucky that there's no Hippocratic oath that they need to take when they first start their businesses. They would be banned for life if there was.

    So is Doctors Without Borders protest worth the danger that they present to all of these people who desperately need these vaccines? If the pharmaceutical companies decide to ignore their pleas, it will not have been worth it, and people will have died in vain. Only time will tell if this protest was successful or not.

Location of where Doctors Without Borders Operates