A) Inequality between small and large businesses

One of the economic actors greatly affected by covid-19 were small businesses. I’ll give the example
of Canada.

Over there, small businesses like small grocery stores, were forced to close due to restrictions even
though they rely on customers as a primary source of income.

While big firms like Walmart were allowed to stay open even though they could survive interrupting
their activity.

B) Big Pharma

Even though the public sector has invested billions more in development, the private sector will rank
in the cash, The pharmaceutical industry was worth 1.4 Trillion dollars in 2021

In the media we hear a lot of names (Pfizer moderna…) But let me clear it up for you. There are 2
major actors, Biotech and the big pharmas.
The big pharma are the largest pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Johnson&Johnson). Then we have
Biotechs (moderna or bioNtech)

The biotechs are small companies who’s job is to come up with new technology for the vaccine, ex :
moderna came up with the RNA messeneger technology for the covid vaccine which was
revolutionary.
But the research for these companies is very expensive and they don’t have the money to fund it so
they get help from the government but sometimes even that’s not enough. So they partner with the
Big pharmas and often the big pharma end up buying these companies.

Nowadays “Big Pharma” is used to refer to politicians, insurance companies… Basically anyone who
profits from prescription drugs. And there is a general conspiracy theory that says bigh pharma is run
by people who prioritise profit over human life.

Here are some of big pharmas famous conspiracy theories :

- HIV, people thought it was created by the CIA to eradicate black people and members of the
lgbtq+ community, though it was proven that this was false since the technology to create
viruses in a lab did not exist back then.

- Then we have vaccines  1/3 of americans think the dangers of vaccines are being kept
from the public in order for the pharmaceutical industry to bring in profit.
- And with the arrival of the covid vaccines, the vaccine conspiracy theories increased. Some
people think it can alter your DNA, others think it contains a microchip created by bill gates.

- People were also very reluctant at the idea of getting booster shots. A booster shot is a form
of vaccine upgrade in order to keep the vaccine strong and people thought these booster
shots were implemented solely for the profit of the big pharmas, though these booster shots
were later proven to be effective.