Owning the Sun: A People’s History of Monopoly Medicine from Aspirin to COVID-19 Vaccines

Should for-profit companies own patents on inventions that were created in U.S. government-funded labs? Is the current American model of privatized medicine a good thing? What happened to the glorious vision of spring 2020 in which commercial, government, and charitable institutions would freely share information on COVID for the good of all? Part history and part polemic, journalist Zaitchik’s (The Gilded Rage: A Wild Ride Through Donald Trump’s America) remarkable book addresses these questions and many more. Sixty years ago, patent-free polio vaccines were available to everyone. By late 2020, the U.S. government had not only signed over the basic technologies for creating mRNA vaccines to drug companies, but had also agreed to pay handsomely for each dose of vaccine made. Countries with less money got nothing. Despite Zaitchik’s obvious biases, there is enough raw data in this work for the listeners to come to their own, sometimes different, conclusions. Narrator Johnny Heller’s clear and low-key delivery ensures that the listener can follow the author’s sometimes complex arguments.