It’s hard to imagine a single event that could make the case for international cooperation more forcefully than a global pandemic. An infectious virus, by definition, has no regard for national politics or borders and, even with the total shutdown of all travel, is bound to threaten people in every country, disrupting daily life and commerce in the process. Virtually everyone — regardless of country, wealth, or occupation — therefore has an immediate interest in reaching global herd immunity as quickly as possible. The sole exception, however, also happens to be the very industry currently at the center of vaccine production: namely, the various for-profit pharma giants that have become household names as untold millions anxiously await their jabs across every continent.

If a global pandemic makes an irrefutable case for cooperation between all nations, classes, and demographics, it also underscores the irreconcilable conflict between the needs of the many and the profits of a small few. Drug companies, after all, would stand to lose billions if their formulae were shared and supply increased, which is the main reason they’re currently resisting efforts to amend the world’s strict intellectual property regime so that vaccine production and distribution can expand. Notwithstanding this greed, COVID-19 has been an unprecedented PR coup for pharmaceutical giants, whose apologists have issued a predictable smoke screen of self-interested bad arguments to justify patent hoarding.

Chief among them has been billionaire Bill Gates who last weekend used an appearance on Britain’s Sky News to explain why the various recipes for vaccines currently held by drug companies should not, in fact, be shared so that production and distribution can increase. Asked directly by Sky’s Sophy Ridge if he thought changing patent restrictions “would be helpful,” Gates answered with a quick and curt “no,” before continuing: