I guess it is hard to get news at the world’s leading newspapers, but this lengthy New York Times podcast (The Daily, 3/3/21) on Bill Gates and his efforts to make vaccines available to the developing world never once mentioned the vaccines developed by China or Russia. This is more than a bit incredible, because at this point, far more of the Russian and Chinese vaccines are going to developing countries than the vaccines supplied by Western countries through COVAX, the international consortium set up the World Health Organization and supported by the Gates Foundation.

Are New York Times reporters prohibited from talking about the Chinese and Russian vaccines?

This piece is also incredible in that it explicitly says that because Gates doesn’t want the government-granted patent monopoly system of financing from being challenged, there is no alternative. That could well be true, but it speaks to the incredible corruption of our politics and our economy that because one incredibly rich person is opposed to having a corrupt, inefficient and antiquated system reformed, it will not be reformed.

A version of this post originally appeared on CEPR’s blog Beat the Press (3/4/21).