Covid-19 – The DANGER of a Two
Speed Response
A Global
Battlefield
The human
civilization is just in the middle of a battle now, the battle
against a
tiny virus called Coronavirus ;
To survive, our civilization has
to fight unitedly to win over this enemy where the
battlefield remains
to be the whole area
of our planet ; The UN Secretary General Mr. Antonio
Guterres on 24th May, 2021,
has urged the countries to take bold decisions
now to both
end the crisis and build a safe &
healthy future for all ;
The Grim Picture
As per a
recent report of the WHO Chief, Mr. T.A.
Ghebreyesus, there have
been more Covid-19 cases
so far this year than in the whole of
the previous
year
(2020), “On current trends” said he, “
the number of deaths will overtake
last year’s
total within the next three weeks” ; As
against this scenario, most
of the vaccine doses or 75 % , have been administered only in just
10
countries
; He has described this ongoing vaccine crisis as “a
scandalous
inequity
that is perpetuating the pandemic” ;
The Danger of
a Two Speed Response
As Mr. T.A.
Ghebreyesus has observed, “a small group of countries that make
& buy the majority of the world’s vaccines, control the fate of the rest of the
world”
; Exactly at this point the danger of two speed response originates ;
As observed
& opined by Mr. Antonio Guterres,
the UN Secretary General,
unless we act right now, we have
to face a sad situation in future when
the rich countries will be able to vaccinate the majority of their people &
open their economies,
while the virus will continue to cause deep suffering
by circling
& mutating in the poorest countries
; Again, further spikes & surges
could claim hundreds of thousands of lives & slow the global economic
recovery also ;
In simple
words, where the rich countries will be able to eradicate Covid-19
from their countries, the vast majority of the people of the poor
countries
will continue
to suffer from the successive, newly
mutated, dangerous &
more lethal
variants of Covid-19 ;
What Can be Done ?
As observed
by the UN Secretary general, Covid19 cannot be seen in
Isolation from the fundamental problems with our health
systems :
Inequality,
Underfunding, Complacency & Neglect
;
As observed by the
UN, to have a solution to this alarming Covid-19
situation the following tasks have
to be executed (Shortened) :
The world leaders must urgently step up with a global plan for
equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines ; A fully funded established
mechanism is to be developed for equitable
vaccine distribution ;
To establish a task
force which
will be able to deal with the various
pharmaceuticals
companies & other key stakeholders ;
The target
will be at
least to double the vaccine production
capacity through
voluntary licenses and technology transfers ;
Every country has
to increase
surveillance & testing, protect health
workers and
fight against misinformation ; The countries
can also
implement
national vaccine programmes & donate excess vaccine
to the
global solidarity initiative, COVAX (a global body
to ensure a
fair & equitable access to the vaccines by all the countries) ;
To prepare for the
next pandemic, the recommendations made
by the
Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness
are to be
supported ; He told that high level political commitment is needed
to transform the existing system and that the WHO must be kept at the
center of the global preparedness ; [Source : UN Reports]
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