I see some people tweeting about getting vaccinated or enjoying something for the first time again after lockdowns.
Could I suggest a bit of care with such tweets, please?
Don't forget the billions of people who are not so lucky, many of whom won't see a jab for years.
It's fine to express joy and relief, of course, but maybe just also spare a thought (and a tweet) for the vast majority of people in the world who have been utterly screwed over by the policy of the EU, UK, US & other rich governments to block wider vaccine production globally.
If you're in the EU, share this article about how the EU is blocking wider vaccine production globally: hrw.org/news/2021/03/2…
And sign & share this official European Citizens' Initiative to force leaders to act: noprofitonpandemic.eu
If you are in the US, share this new letter to Biden from over 170 former heads of state & government and Nobel laureates calling on him to urgently back a WTO proposal to waive intellectual property rules and share Covid vaccine technology with the world: peoplesvaccinealliance.medium.com/open-letter-fo…
In a global pandemic, no one is safe, until we are all safe.
"There are many steps that can be taken to ramp up vaccine production and broaden distribution. These include… temporarily waiving intellectual property barriers..."
"this is not the beginning of the end; it is only the beginning of an endless wait: There aren’t enough vaccines to go around in the richest countries, let alone the poorest ones."
"Governments should support India and South Africa’s proposal to waive some aspects of global intellectual property (IP) rules to enable large-scale manufacturing" - @hrw
At the current rate of vaccination (about 300,000 doses a week) and with some 14.2 million jabs still needed to reach estimated target herd immunity of 70% in a population of 11 million, #Belgium's Covid-19 vaccination program will take 11 more months. epistat.wiv-isp.be/covid/covid-19…
Meanwhile, the US, which (unlike EU countries) doesn't have a national healthcare system to speak of and normally has the worst health numbers in the developed world, is doing much better. covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tra…