The End of Men(67)
“The Canadian government will negotiate carefully the license of the MP-1 vaccine, so named after the Male Plague, as we call the disease here in Canada, to countries for a fee. This is valuable intellectual property with the potential to save many lives and, if abused, to cause great harm. We intend to treat it with the care and respect it deserves. We won’t be taking any questions at this time.”
Silence falls across the room as the screen cuts back to the news presenter who repeats the news over and over again for anyone tuning in. A vaccine has been discovered. It will be sold by the Canadian government. Dr. Lisa Michael at the University of Toronto is credited with its discovery. More details to follow when we know more.
Oh my God, she’s selling it. I have failed. We all have. I look around the room and I see so many emotions—delight, anger, relief, exhaustion, outrage—but I don’t see the one I feel so deeply it’s as if my spine is dissolving and it’s taking all my effort just to stay upright. Shame. This woman is going to hold the world to ransom and she wouldn’t have the chance if we had got there first. We failed at this final, important hurdle. We identified the genes. We created the immunity test and then, when we were needed most, we failed and Lisa Michael has skipped into the sunset with a vaccine, the acclaim. More important, she has allowed herself to be pushed into selling it. Surely, she can’t want to sell it. I can’t fathom how a doctor who has spent the last two years working on a vaccine to save men, to return us to normalcy, could show it to the world and then say, “Now pay up.” She must be scared and pushed around. The government must have forced her to do this. Surely, it can’t be her.
AMANDA
Glasgow, the Independent Republic of Scotland
Day 675
I’m very glad I’m Canadian for a start.” The woman on the TV laughs. She’s dressed simply in a black blazer, black trousers and a white shirt. She’s laughing. Laughing. What the fuck is wrong with her?
“Let’s be honest, if I was from one of many other countries, there’s no way in hell it would have been my decision to make. Lots of governments would have happily shot me in my sleep to avoid the annoyance of being legally required to pay me for my work.”
The interviewer, the journalist Maria Ferreira whose writing about the Plague has hooked the world, looks shell-shocked. She looks the way I feel.
“And do you feel comfortable with your decision to require payment for the MP-1 vaccine? You could save billions of lives—”
Lisa frowns and cuts Maria off. “I am saving billions of lives. Look, I’m not keeping the vaccine from anyone. There’s enough money in the world for everyone to be vaccinated. And, you know, for millennia we have expected women to sacrifice themselves at the altar of the greater good and I’m not engaging in it. You want me to tell you that this was a hard decision and I had sleepless nights deciding what to do but that’s not the truth. This was the easiest decision in the world and it’s not as selfish as it first appears—well, if you think being compensated for an incredible achievement is selfish, which personally I don’t. Besides, if we’re going to eradicate this disease from the face of the earth, we have to be certain that vaccination is done right. Letting anyone, anywhere, produce the vaccine causes the very real risk that a poorly produced vaccine will be used and this disease will live on when it doesn’t have to.”
Maria visibly relaxes. She looks much more comfortable with the idea that medical necessity has been a factor in Lisa’s thinking rather than just cold, hard cash.
“So that’s why you involved the Canadian government so closely? To ensure the quality of the vaccine?”
“As I said, it’s a factor. We’re preserving the vaccine’s reputation and efficacy. Only countries with adequate manufacturing facilities and a rigorous quality control process will be allowed to purchase a license for the vaccine. That way, we’ll know that everyone who has been vaccinated has received an effective dose.”
“Have you spoken, since the announcement of the vaccine, to Dr. Amaya Sharvani, Dr. George Kitchen and Dr. Elizabeth Cooper, whose work was instrumental in your discovery?” Maria looks for the first time in this interview like she’s enjoying herself a little. I have no doubt that question is written in capital letters, underlined in red: Do not let Lisa take all the credit as though she invented the vaccine single-handedly without any help from anyone.
“I’ve been quite busy,” Lisa replies smoothly. “Although I’m very grateful to them for their work at the beginning of the research process.” She can’t even thank them without a caveat. The beginning of the process. The cheek of it.
“There’s rumors that the Canadian government has already made you a billionaire thanks to your share of the vaccine. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is.” She’s shameless. Completely shameless. Who cares about billions when the world has been ripped apart and you have the means to sew it back together again? I don’t buy her “validity of vaccine” excuse for a second. She could have ensured production was kept safe and then provided licenses for free.
“Are you willing to disclose what share of the vaccine you have retained and how much you have been paid?”
“I own forty percent of the MP-1 vaccine. The Canadian government owns fifty percent and the University of Toronto owns the remaining ten percent. I’m not at liberty to reveal the amounts that have been paid.”