A central tenet of capitalism is that wherever there is widespread death, destruction and misery, someone will be making a lot of money out of it. That is the case with wars and natural disasters. It is certainly the case with the covid pandemic. Nobody is doing better than the pharmaceutical transnational corporations (known in the US as Big Pharma). The pandemic has seen governments around the world order billions of doses of the various covid vaccines, and they are definitely not cheap.

Pfizer Makes $1.5 Million An Hour Profit

Let's look at Pfizer, the one of most interest to New Zealanders. In early 2022 it was revealed that the Government paid $36.50 per dose for the ten million doses of the vaccine that it bought directly from Pfizer. "Pfizer's two-shot coronavirus vaccine (Comirnaty) brought in $US36.78 billion ($NZ55.28b) in revenue in 2021, its first full year on the market... Pfizer expects Comirnaty to bring in another $US32b in sales in 2022, while Wall Street is looking for more than $US34b".

"Both the company and the Street expect another $US22b in sales from Paxlovid (its new coronavirus treatment), which received authorisation from US regulators shortly before Christmas (2021)... Vaccines have quickly become Pfizer's biggest selling business. They pulled in $US42.6b in sales last year (2021), or more than three times the revenue brought in through the next largest segment, oncology" (Stuff, 9/2/22, Tom Murphy).

Not surprisingly, this level of pharmaceutical profiteering came in for trenchant criticism. "Oxfam Aotearoa Communication and Advocacy Director Dr Jo Spratt said the company is prioritising shareholder profits rather than helping others in the battle against the virus. 'Pfizer's results today are clear evidence of how the company has used its monopoly to enrich its shareholders at the expense of almost half the world's population who still have no access to lifesaving vaccines', Spratt said".

"'Millions are dying from Covid because companies like Pfizer have prioritised profits over saving lives'. And it's paying off for Pfizer, raking in as much as $US1 million ($NZ1.5m) every hour in profit. 'It is obscene that we have allowed pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer to put their profits before the good of humanity as the pandemic drags on. No corporations should decide who lives and who dies'. The advocacy group Global Justice Now also criticised the drugmaker for 'ripping off public health systems' and reporting revenue higher than the gross domestic product of several countries" (ibid.).

World's Ten Richest Men Have Done Very Nicely Out Of Pandemic

And, it goes without saying, the mega-rich have got even richer during the pandemic. According to Oxfam's 2022 report "Inequality Kills": "Lower incomes for the world's poorest contributed to the death of 21,000 people each day. But the world's ten richest men have more than doubled their collective fortunes since March 2020, Oxfam said".

Oxfam's UK Chief Executive said: "'This year, what's happening is off the scale. There's been a new billionaire created almost every day during this pandemic, meanwhile 99% of the world's population are worse off because of lockdowns, lower international trade, less international tourism, and as a result of that, 160 million more people have been pushed into poverty. Something is deeply flawed with our economic system'". Yes, it is.

"According to Forbes figures cited by the charity, the world's ten richest men are: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault and family, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffet" (RNZ, 17/1/22).

Buying Their Way In

One of those ten men unexpectedly turned up in locked down New Zealand in 2021. Google co-founder Larry Page was allowed into the country, from Fiji, in January 2021, because of a medical emergency involving his son. It transpired that he had applied for an investor visa three months beforehand but, because he was overseas, it could not be processed. It was processed and approved once he was in the country with his son. An investor visa requires the applicant to have $10 million to invest in NZ over three years.

All immigration has been frozen during the two years that the border has been closed. But, in December 2021, the Government announced that it would start processing investor visa applications again. In other words, prioritising rich foreign investors, wanting to buy their way in, over everyone else. I have but two words of caution for the Government - Kim Dotcom, who came into the country back in 2010 under that category and has been a pain in the arse for Governments of all stripes ever since. They've been trying to get rid of him since 2012 but he's still here, ten years later (see "Kim Dotcom And The Good Character Test: Money Versus Power", by James Ayers, in Watchdog 130, August 2012).

A nightmare of death and disease for billions; a business opportunity for even greater profit for a tiny handful. Yet another gratuitous example of disaster capitalism. Once the coronavirus pandemic is gone the world will still be saddled with the capitalism virus. Where is the vaccine for that?