Who is popular today?

So much of the budget projections depends on what covid19 does that the term "pandemic economy" is now used.
However, at this time of viral and economic uncertainty, it is helpful to maintain some hope but it is also our civic duty to be vigilant over those responsible for our well-being. It is now found that the more the vaccination programme is divisively politicised, the more vaccine hesitancy will increase.
There is also inequity in vaccine distribution. Some rich countries bought much more than their population can use.
There is also questionable discrimination against vaccines at borders of certain countries. Without clear justification, all this smells of shady imperialism.
Covid19 takes lives but the collateral damage can also take down an economy by internal political and economic mismanagement. Many of these small, low-income countries in Africa, South-East Asia and the Caribbean have put much more politics than economic sense into their development programmes. The inequitable and costly distribution of vaccines exposes and aggravates their inherent weaknesses.
Bothered by the lingering inequity in vaccine distribution and border entry, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley is confronting governments and vaccine manufacturers of rich countries on their moral and international obligations. Addressing the 15th session of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) last Monday, as its newly-elected president, she declared: “At the very time when the world needs support and a constant assurance of fairness and equity, it is the opposite.”
UNCTAD's opening statement said: “The most vulnerable countries continue to be the hardest hit at a time when they were already not doing well.”
Both Jamaica’s PM Andrew Holness and Mottley are pressing British PM Boris Johnson’s government to ease up the vaccine entry requirements for their citizens.
The UNCTAD conference noted that many developing countries suffer from lack of vaccine supply and very low fully-vaccinated rates, some less than 0.1 per cent (eg Congo, South Sudan, Haiti) whereas rich countries (eg the UAE, Portugal, etc have over 80 per cent).
[caption id="attachment_868861" align="alignnone" width="433"] -[/caption]
The growing inequity, both economically and in public health, between the rich and poor countries is harshly exposing the “profit before people” trend which Mottley recently denounced. This inequity seems driven by elements of geo-politics too, leaving the door open for China’s Sinopharm intervention for “soft power” domination. China already has heavy economic investments in Africa and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, Canada continues to refuse entry to people vaccinated with Sinopharm, a WHO-approved vaccine. This essentially means that citizens from over 70 countries who use Sinopharm cannot enter Canada.
Will they be quarantined? Will they remain prohibited immigrants and visitors for reasons still not clear. Is it the chemical deficiencies of the vaccine?
Or is it part of Canada’s Huawei-driven quarrel with China?
This is not an issue in which such arbitrary barriers should be created. Canada’s action is surprising, since the country is known to be quite liberal and friendly to the developing world. Sinopharm is now accepted for entry by over 70 countries, including Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Iceland and Finland. Why not Canada?
Our government proudly pressed citizens to take Sinopharm and they did. So too did those of many other Caricom states. Its efficacy rate is rather high, over 80 per cent in some places. Its side effects are no more serious than the others.
Our government should take up the Canadian blockade with Caricom and push for relief. Why is Caricom so sluggish and divided on the world stage?
My attention was first drawn to this blockade when an aged lady wished to visit a seriously sick relative in Toronto but couldn’t because she followed the Government’s advice and took Sinopharm.
Canada has a large population from the Caribbean. Our government has a moral obligation.
This vaccine inequity has hit poor African countries hard. One African leader after another took the New York-based UN podium two weeks ago to arouse the conscience of the rich world. South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said: “It is an indictment on humanity that more than 82 per cent of the world’s vaccine doses have been acquired by wealthy countries, while less than one per cent has gone to low-income countries.”
Angola’s president Joao Lourenco complained: “It is shocking to see the vaccine disparity between some nations and others.”
And now they are talking about a third booster shot when the vast majority in some countries haven’t had one dose yet.
 
The post Sinopharm and inequity in vaccine distribution appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.