Jeremy Menchik, a self-described “human guinea pig” who volunteered for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine trials, dropped out to protest the company’s greed in reaping profits from the ongoing pandemic while doing little to resolve global vaccine inequity.

Menchik is launching a new website — mrna4all.org — where other vaccine trial participants can join the effort to pressure vaccine makers to scale up production to vaccinate the world. “That they have to be accountable to their guinea pigs and they have to advance policies for public health, not just private profit … I think that must be unnerving to them,” says Menchik, an associate professor at Boston University. “We have to treat this pandemic as a global crisis, as a global public health emergency.”

 

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#democracynow Amy Goodman Jeremy Menchik Juan Gonzalez Moderna’s COVID-19 Pandemic