What if it’s actually the international bureaucracy to blame?

So, Monkeypox has broken out again and this time around the solution is not just to ask the promiscuous to be less so for a bit. OK. There is a vaccine, why isn’t it available to these who need it?

African nations hit by mpox still waiting for vaccines – despite promises by the west

Last week’s planned rollout of doses faces further delays as campaigners complain of greed and inequality

Ah, yes, we know that one, don’t we? We must overturn capitalism in order to make the world a better place.

“The continuously unfolding injustice of mpox owes to long indifference and inequity, stigma, slowness, anaemic use of public power and yes, greed,” said Peter Maybarduk, access-to-medicines director at US-based campaign group Public Citizen, which signed the letter.

Quite so, quite so.

But we actually have a system to deal with this problem. Sure, maybe capitalism does need to be overthrown but what is going wrong with the system we’ve already got to ameliorate this particular and specific problem?

Unfortunately, a new Mpox variant is now spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and nearby countries. Here’s the crazy part: despite declaring Mpox a public health emergency on August 14, the WHO has not approved any Mpox vaccines. You might think, “Who cares what the WHO authorizes?” After all, the FDA, EMA, and the UK have all granted emergency approval. But here’s the catch: the WHO’s approval is crucial for GAVI, the vaccine alliance that donates vaccines to developing countries. Without WHO approval, GAVI is reluctant to provide vaccines to the Congo. To add insult to injury, the Congo itself has approved the Jynneos and LC16 vaccines. Yet, the WHO refuses to authorize and GAVI to donate these vaccines, citing vague concerns about safety and efficacy.

Oh. The problem is in the international bureaucracy we’ve put in place to ameliorate the problems caused by capitalism. So, obviously, the solution is to abolish capitalism and have more of life determined by international bureaucracies.

Right?

No, come on, it’s obvious. Can’t be any other solution at all. Clearly the world is made better by giving more power to the incompetent, how can anyone think otherwise?

Tim Worstall