Merck is now developing a vaccine to protect people against the AIDS virus, and among those who are participating in the second of three clinical trials are 175 prostitutes from the Dominican Republic.
One of those prostitutes, Jacinta Julia Adams Fernandez, has three children. She is participating in the clinical trial because several of her friends and co-workers have died from AIDS, and she is hopeful that the vaccine will, if approved, help protect her.
The Merck clinical trials, which includes professed prostitutes, give us a bit more insight into the goals of this pharmaceutical giant. It becomes more obvious with the passing of each day that corporate profits are the all important, primary objective, regardless of the social consequences resulting from their pursuit of net profit.
Vaccines to treat diseases that can only be acquired by participating in sexually questionable practices says a lot about this company. It's all about the bottom line, or as one observer proclaimed, cha-ching, cha-ching goes that cash register.