Two other things to add to the above analysis. In fact CounterPunch is a good source of articles about Covid-19 and this one
“The So-Called Moderna Vaccine Is a Publicly Funded Miracle”
by Alex Lawson is also interesting and the title is self explanatory. In it he shows how the opportunities and potential for scientific cooperation which the pandemic presented, have instead been used for capitalist corporative gain. This publicly funded vaccine should have relinquished patent rights and allowed cross national vaccine development with ramping up of supplies worldwide. The same should have applied to all research concerning Covid-19 and treatments, diagnostic tests and supplies and so on. Instead politicians still continue to operate with the old profit led capitaliust worldview. It is a crime against humanity that seems to be unnoticed that during this horrendous pandemic, the main concern of the USG was to ramp up aggressive and punitive sanctions against Iran, Venezuela and Russia, some of these sanctions., limiting the ability of some of these countries to respond to the pandemic. Israel also took this opportunity to carry out many bombing raids within Syria, and of course the war in Yemen is still ongoing with help from USG and UKG.
The second point worth reflecting on is that of the initial response to the pandemic in UK. Instead of reflexive long tried and tested Public Health measures being quickly implemented, the government formed a committee SAGE which ignored those at the heart of dealing with the epidemic, instead discussing highly theoretical modelling with high dependency on RIRA principle. In fact Public Health England with its network of expertise and local connections, also involving the councils was marginalized from the outset, and the contempt shown to this essential organization reached its apex when the government announced dissolution of PHE and its incorporation into a newly formed biosecurity centre presumably under the auspices of the MOD. This re-organization passed with minimal comment from the ‘corporate media’ or the opposition or scientists. In fact throughout this essentially public health crisis, there was an inordinate interference by politicians. This is another very glaring difference between the West and the rest of the world.