The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the world, and according to the World Health Organization, it killed at least three million people in 2020 alone. But shortly after scientists designed a vaccine for COVID-19, tuberculosis (TB) reclaimed its top spot as the deadliest infectious disease in the world today.

Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence argues that big pharmaceutical companies have delayed the fight against TB, permitting millions of people to die around the world in the pursuit of higher profits. To begin to remedy this, she advises governments around the world to cooperate in capping corporate pharmaceutical profits.

Tuberculosis remains the world’s oldest and deadliest pandemic, killing at least 1.6 million people each year. According to the investigative reporters at ProPublica, it’s been five years since GSK was on the cusp of bringing a full-fledged vaccine to life, to save lives that could be lost. Instead of pushing forward, the Big Pharma pulled back on its global public health work to lean into a more lucrative market of curbing viral infections that primarily impact those in the United States.

See, because when it comes to tuberculosis, those suffering most don’t have big-name health insurance providers behind them, or government-subsidized health care. They’re the migrants, the malnourished, and the forgotten in developed countries. Mind you, these are nations that the West and colonizers have raped and pillaged for resources and labor, leaving behind souls basically struggling to survive.

Because those destabilized nations don’t have a wealth of resources to spend on vaccines, their people are left behind, and these pharmaceutical companies are able to maintain that there is no market for such vaccines.