Pay Attention to Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer on the Pandemic
Build factories for vaccines even before you know if the inoculations will work, the Harvard economist says.
In the early years of the 21st century, an intrepid band of economists devised a clever, market-based idea for combating pneumococcal disease, a sometimes-symptomless killer that’s spread by airborne droplets when infected people cough or sneeze. They said funders should stimulate development and production of vaccines using an “advance market commitment”—essentially a promise to buy doses in large quantities at a set price. Governments, foundations, and companies quickly adopted the idea. Vaccines were developed, and they were used to immunize 150 million people and save 700,000 lives, mostly those of the elderly and children younger than 5. One of the inventors, Michael Kremer, shared the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019.
Now that another sometimes-symptomless killer is spreading, the gang is getting back together for a new push to save lives. Since their original idea—advance market commitment—probably won’t induce sufficient private-sector investment, they also say countries should directly finance vaccine development.