Of all the crazy parts of our crazy system, the craziest part is where taxpayers pay for the research, then pay private companies to publish it, and then pay again so scientists can read it. We may not agree on much, but we can all agree on this: it is time, finally and forever, to get rid of for-profit scientific publishers.
It’s. The. Capitalism.
How many covid vaccines did Cuba invent and proceed to distribute, for free, all across latin America?
Yep, with the capitalist class as the ruling class and a lack of revolutionary action, this won’t change.
As the capitalists are merely acting within their percieved class interests here, the only chance for this to change, aside from the obvious socialist revolution, is to pressure them as an organised working class to do so.