House Passes Build Back Better Plan and Pfizer Fights to Keep Their Vaccine Recipe Secret

The House has passed President Biden's $1.7 trillion Build Back Better plan and it will now move on to the Senate where it will most likely undergo some changes before it gets voted on. The Senate is aiming for a vote before Christmas. While it was passed along party lines, everyone came out with a win as progressives will get to expand the social safety net, moderates got the CBO score they wanted, and even House minority leader Kevin McCarthy drew the praise of Donald Trump for his 8 hour speech delaying the vote. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor at NBC News, joins us for this and how the U.S. is spending billions on Covid treatments other than vaccines.

Next, Pfizer recently struck a licensing deal with the Medical Patents Pool which in turn can strike deals with other manufacturers to make generic versions of its Covid antiviral pill for poorer countries, but when it comes to its mRNA vaccine, Pfizer has not been so willing to share the recipe. They stand to make $36 billion in revenue this year and have said that they will increase their shipments to poor countries at adjusted prices. Stephanie Baker, senior writer at Bloomberg News, joins us for the fight over profits and the lopsided global supply of vaccines.

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