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milestogo

(18,274 posts)
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:04 PM Jan 2022

"The COVID vaccine is part of a scheme to make money for Big Pharma and Anthony Fauci."

This is a second argument that anti-vaxxers commonly make.

As far as I know, all Covid vaccines in the US have been free to anybody that wants one. As far as I know, Anthony Fauci is a salaried employee and his income is not affected by vaccine production.

But people don't trust Big Pharma, in part due to the Oxycontin/Perdue fiasco.

The response to my first thread was great. Can you help me out with responding to this argument too?

22 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
"The COVID vaccine is part of a scheme to make money for Big Pharma and Anthony Fauci." (Original Post) milestogo Jan 2022 OP
It's OK Turbineguy Jan 2022 #1
Vaccine costs $19,, monoclonal antibodies and treatment cost thousands Walleye Jan 2022 #2
THIS is the most accurate and salient skewer available Maru Kitteh Jan 2022 #20
It could be. It is the American model. roody Jan 2022 #3
I would Rebl2 Jan 2022 #4
If he did he'd probably have to disclose it, considering his position. Ocelot II Jan 2022 #6
I hope MTG isn't pushing this info because she DOES own stock. Prof. Toru Tanaka Jan 2022 #16
Fauci is a government employee who earns a government salary. Ocelot II Jan 2022 #5
They somehow thinks Fauci is a political appointee instead of a life long government employee. Claustrum Jan 2022 #15
and if the vaccine DIDN'T make money for a for-profit business DBoon Jan 2022 #7
On conservative websites, Mr.Bill Jan 2022 #8
LOL! ProfessorGAC Jan 2022 #12
Yet a $56,000 pharmaceutical regimen is just the free market at work... EarthFirst Jan 2022 #9
They have certainly profited off of it madville Jan 2022 #10
+1 leftstreet Jan 2022 #21
The Covid vaccine is mainly a response to the Covid pandemic. Jim__ Jan 2022 #11
and the assholes @ FIX NEWSLESS mbromell69 Jan 2022 #13
and Q ass Marjorie Greeene mbromell69 Jan 2022 #14
Do they really think all the OTHER industries, US & Global whathehell Jan 2022 #17
Anthony Fauci doesn't seem like someone who is motivated by money. milestogo Jan 2022 #18
No, he doesn't whathehell Jan 2022 #19
Not greedy not motivated by money. That is a concept incomprehensible to Republicans Walleye Jan 2022 #22

Walleye

(36,439 posts)
2. Vaccine costs $19,, monoclonal antibodies and treatment cost thousands
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:06 PM
Jan 2022

It’s the unvaccinated who are making money for big Pharma at this point. They already got their vaccine funds

Maru Kitteh

(29,233 posts)
20. THIS is the most accurate and salient skewer available
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 07:19 PM
Jan 2022

To take that “argument” apart.

roody

(10,849 posts)
3. It could be. It is the American model.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:07 PM
Jan 2022

I'm very glad that I have had 3 shots of it. So far, so good. Of course, I also mask, social distance, and don't mingle in public places.

Ocelot II

(121,502 posts)
6. If he did he'd probably have to disclose it, considering his position.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:10 PM
Jan 2022

And so we'd know about it if he did.

Prof. Toru Tanaka

(2,363 posts)
16. I hope MTG isn't pushing this info because she DOES own stock.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 06:33 PM
Jan 2022

And she is most likely vaccinated.

Ocelot II

(121,502 posts)
5. Fauci is a government employee who earns a government salary.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:09 PM
Jan 2022

He doesn't, and can't, profit in any way from the vaccines.

Claustrum

(5,052 posts)
15. They somehow thinks Fauci is a political appointee instead of a life long government employee.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 06:24 PM
Jan 2022

So they think of him as another politician who will land a crushy job at one of the big pharma companies after his government service to get his payback. It's once again a projection and conflating issues that they normally do. Fauci is going to retire as a salary government employee.

DBoon

(23,171 posts)
7. and if the vaccine DIDN'T make money for a for-profit business
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:11 PM
Jan 2022

it would be attacked as wasteful government socialism and nanny state welfare

Heads I win, tails you lose.

Mr.Bill

(24,871 posts)
8. On conservative websites,
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:14 PM
Jan 2022

I have heard at different times that Dr. Fuaci owns Moderna, Pfizer anf J&J. What a load of bullshit. Just more projection, since Trump and Kushner have thought of nothing but how they can make money off the pandemic.

ProfessorGAC

(70,622 posts)
12. LOL!
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:39 PM
Jan 2022

Pfizer has a market cap of $331 billion. J&J is around $450 billion.
If he owned those 2 companies he'd be wealthier than Bezos, Musk, & Gates, combined.
Somehow I'd think we'd have heard he's the richest person in the world!

madville

(7,479 posts)
10. They have certainly profited off of it
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:24 PM
Jan 2022

Moderna stock is currently up 1200% from $20 a share in November 2019 to $250 a share now. At their peak in the last year it was up almost 2000%. While the vaccine is “free” to the public, the federal government has pumped billions and potentially it will be trillions into these companies.

I don’t think it was a big conspiracy but I also don’t trust them to not take advantage of it, they are still a pharmaceutical corporation that profits big time. I’m kinda mad I didn’t dump my Roth IRA into it, or Tesla for that matter!

Jim__

(14,502 posts)
11. The Covid vaccine is mainly a response to the Covid pandemic.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:35 PM
Jan 2022

I'm sure Big Pharma is making a lot of money off the vaccine. I remember when the pandemic first started. My fear was that we had no good response to it except isolation. Whether or not some one is getting rich off the vaccine is a different issue from whether or not the vaccine saved us from a devastating catastrophe. It did.

 

mbromell69

(44 posts)
13. and the assholes @ FIX NEWSLESS
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:56 PM
Jan 2022

are claiming to their dumbass base of viewers that Dr Fauci is worse than Mengele ... aka the "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz and that talking point I have heard in public from MAGATs

then again since not ONE MAGAt knows jackshit about history easy to see why those ignorant asses would repeat the bullshit
 

mbromell69

(44 posts)
14. and Q ass Marjorie Greeene
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 05:57 PM
Jan 2022

owns what? $350,000 in stock of companies producing the vaccine?

whathehell

(29,874 posts)
17. Do they really think all the OTHER industries, US & Global
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 06:47 PM
Jan 2022

that have been SAVAGED by the Pandemic would just ALLOW Big Pharma to "profit" at the expense of THEIR businesses?.. You might remind them of this' because if Covid were a "hoax", those other industries would be breaking down doors to expose it as such, to get their businesses back running again.

As for Dr. Fauci, do they imagine him to be an "entrepreneur" or in the position somehow, to "make money" from a disease?
He's a Government Worker and makes a fixed salary, not a ,"commission" on medical products.

These people sound terribly naive and uninformed about how things work.


milestogo

(18,274 posts)
18. Anthony Fauci doesn't seem like someone who is motivated by money.
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 06:50 PM
Jan 2022

He is at the top of his field, and enjoys tremendous prestige. And if he did not have such a strong sense of commitment to public health he would have retired 20 years ago.

whathehell

(29,874 posts)
19. No, he doesn't
Sat Jan 1, 2022, 06:56 PM
Jan 2022

, but even if he DID, I'd guess his making profits off drugs would constitute a severe conflict of interest in terms of his job.

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