Ending the Covid-19 pandemic is a global effort that will require a massive vaccination effort not only in wealthy countries but also across the developing world. The truth is, we’re just getting started.
That’s why The Intercept decided to publish an important investigation into how Howard Dean — the onetime progressive presidential candidate now on the payroll of a Big Pharma lobbying firm — was pushing the Biden administration to obstruct low-cost generic Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries.
In response, Dean lashed out at The Intercept for not doing enough to help Democrats, calling us “the Newsmax of the left.”
Well, we’ve got news for Howard Dean. We don’t give Democrats a free pass when they put corporate profits over global health, and we’re sure not here to help them win elections.
Our job is to report the facts and hold the powerful to account. That’s why we’re investigating the pharmaceutical industry’s lobbying machine and exposing those who threaten to contribute to the coming global Covid-19 vaccine apartheid.
If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
This isn’t the first time The Intercept has been attacked by Democrats expecting kid-glove treatment.
In 2016, when we reported that Dean had found work at Dentons, a lobbying and law firm on retainer at various pharmaceutical and for-profit health care corporations, Dean insulted an award-winning Intercept reporter, comparing him to Tucker Carlson.
Now, Dean is again hurling insults against our newsroom because our reporters are exposing him for trying to help Big Pharma gouge the world’s poorest countries over the Covid-19 vaccine.
Dean’s work on behalf of Big Pharma is simply appalling. He’s fighting an effort led by India and South Africa and joined by Kenya, Bolivia, Pakistan, and dozens of other countries to request a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights over the creation of Covid-19 vaccines. The waiver would allow unfettered access to the intellectual property and formulas necessary to retool factories and ramp up production of vaccines for the developing world. Otherwise, the countries say, they will not reach significant vaccination rates until as late as 2024.
These are the facts, and they may be unflattering for Howard Dean. But The Intercept doesn’t exist to help Democrats. There are plenty of news outlets that behave more like partisans than journalists. That’s not The Intercept and never will be. We exist to report the truth, expose corruption, and hold the powerful to account.
