If a vaccine proves too expensive or difficult to obtain, those who seek exorbitant profits off of it will be scrutinized far more closely than bankers were after the 2008 crash. Actions like those that have already allowed insiders to pocket $80 million will provoke public revulsion, even if those trades were pre-scheduled. Calls to regulate sectors that take for granted intellectual property protections will grow exponentially. Those demands won’t be fanatical or radical, but mainstream.

The results of the WHO investigation are keenly awaited by scientists and governments around the world, none more so than Washington, which lobbied hard for the mission. The
“The team had extensive discussions with Chinese counterparts and received updates on epidemiological studies, biologic and genetic analysis and animal health research,” Christian Lindmeier told reporters, saying these included video discussions with Wuhan virologists and scientists.
Trump administration accuses the WHO of being China-centric and plans to leave the agency over its handling of the pandemic.

Bruce Lee of the City University of New York (CUNY) Public School of Health estimated that if 20% of the U.S. population contracts the virus, the one-year post-hospitalization costs would be at least $50 billion, before factoring in longer-term care for lingering health problems. Without a vaccine, if 80% of the population became infected, that cost would balloon to $204 billion.

Some countries hit hard by the new coronavirus – including the United States, Britain and Italy – are considering whether these long-term effects can be considered a “post-COVID syndrome,” according to Reuters interviews with about a dozen doctors and health economists.

Researchers,including from Cuba’s Center of Molecular Immunology,which developed itolizumab, said timely use of the drug in combination with standard therapy helped reduce inflammation and prevented COVID-19 from worsening.