this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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Technology
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I feel like this kinda tech should be more widely available if it's for health reasons, to avoid a monopoly on something vital.
Patents literally are a government granted time-limited monopoly. There are a number of reasons why the government grants these monopolies. Perhaps, the ethics of medical patents should be debated, but if we collectively don't grant patents on vital medical technologies, then I think it is unlikely that corporations are going to invest billions developing and testing life saving drugs. (Another debate: are private corporations the best stewards of developing this technology.)
For now, this is the system we've engineered ourselves into a corner with.
I don't really care about some blood oxygen monitor in a smart watch, but inadvertently destroying the pharmaceutical industry over it probably ought to be carefully considered.
Inadvertently destroying the pharmaceutical industry would be one of the best possible outcomes.
Unless you're currently sick but hey sacrifices need to be made
I didn't say anything about stopping the manufacture of medications. There are any number of ways that could be handled which would be an improvement over our current pharmaceutical industry.
I mean, if you got super sick in America right now… I bet you’d be thinking “oh fuck, this is going to cost me.” So, even though we have all this fancy medicine, how many people in the end actually get that medicine? Who Can afford it? Look at Ozempic and Wegovy, it’s for diabetics and pre-diabetics I believe, but there is a shortage on it because affluent people will shell out hundreds to lose weight.