Sherani Theophilus / Times-Chronicle
As 2021 comes to a close, I wish (as I do every year) for peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. And I wonder, how will we manifest that?
Many of us were disappointed to hear of Omicron and the new regulations that altered our plans this holiday. Was I surprised? No. We know COVID-19 is an RNA virus and one of its superpowers is the ability to mutate when it’s under attack. We certainly attacked it in Canada. We procured more than enough vaccines for our population. We mostly got the distribution right.
I do admire MP Anita Anand for her role in negotiating the deliveries. Interestingly, we both attended the same high school in Kentville, Nova Scotia. It’s a small world, isn’t it?
So small that just considering ourselves safe now isn’t appropriate. We travel. We love to go places that are warm in winter. We have homes, businesses and relatives in other countries. Viruses move swiftly. What this means is that when we hear the warning from WHO that vaccine parity is the answer, we should listen.
Unequal distribution of vaccines is showing us the gap between the rich and the poor. There are health care workers fighting the spread of COVID-19 without receiving even a single dose in poorer countries. Areas of conflict are also hit harder by COVID-19.
According to ourworldindata.org, 10 countries have administered more than 75 per cent of the world’s vaccines, while low-income countries have received just over one per cent —nowhere near enough to fully vaccinate their health workers, older populations and others at the highest risk of severe disease and death.
As Loice Ombajo, an infectious disease specialist spearheading the case management of COVID-19 in Kenya states, “vaccines should be urgently made available to poor nations for the same reason they should be administered in poor communities. It is because no one is truly safe from COVID-19 until we are all safe.”
I wonder if any of our unwanted vaccines were among the donated million doses Nigeria had to destroy? A million near-expiry doses, with no time left to use them. I suppose I cannot expect fairness when health care is a multi-billion-dollar for-profit industry that has great influence on governments. Lives don’t count as much as revenue.
Any promising advances in university research are quickly picked up for funding and ownership by big pharma. There should be ethics involved. They could share their intellectual property, and give countries with low coverage the means to catch up.
Why should they decide who lives and who dies? We haven’t learned anything from the AIDS crisis.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, said vaccine equity was “not rocket science, nor charity. It is smart public health and in everyone’s best interest.” Simple words to grasp, hopefully, simple enough for the powers that be to listen.
Maybe the small changes we make here in our towns, to take care of each other, to protect our resources, to make amends, to learn and do better, will affect change on a macro level. It’s a new year. A fresh beginning. Time for our wishes and intentions to be expressed.
