Vaccine Nationalism

 It had to happen. Vaccine Nationalism has broken out. Your country is depriving my country of our vaccine. Our experts are better than your experts when we chose to listen to them. Our intellectual property won't be shared unless you pay us a lot of money. Our vaccine is better than your vaccine because it was produced in our country not yours. 

The facts of the matter are that third world countries are being deprived of the vaccine because they cannot afford to pay for the vaccine and they are being deprived of the ability to vaccinate their populations because they cannot afford the infrastructure. All countries are being equally nationalistic in their attitude.

If you are a resident  of a rich country you will benefit from being on the top of the list. You will have been lucky so don't accuse other countries about being nationalistic  because that will be complete hypocrisy. I haven't noticed anyone from a rich country foregoing access to the vaccine to allow someone from a third world country to be allowed to get priority. This includes me and my friends some of whom claim that the Oxford vaccine is better than the Pfizer one because it is British: I hate to remind them that this is bunkum.

The Covid 19 virus does not have a nationality neither does the vaccine. The virus and the vaccine are biochemical reagents which react with the human organism  to produce a disease response, in the case of the virus, or a prophylactic response, in the case of the vaccine. The virus and the vaccine have no thoughts or intentions they are neither enemies or allies. The virus is a result of natural evolution; the vaccine is the result of human design and ingenuity. The virus will evolve by natural selection to become more contagious or virulent or both. The vaccine will have to be changed by human design to counteract the evolution of the virus.

There really should be no such thing as " intellectual property" no one can work alone to produce a new theory or blueprint for a new vaccine. All intellectual activity is built upon the work of others including our forefathers and mothers.

It would have been impossible for Einstein to have developed his theory of relativity if he had lived a thousand years ago. Einstein recognised this which is why he shared all his scientific knowledge and ideas .

Vaccine technology should be shared as it not genuinely the "intellectual property" of an individual or a company. The product of vaccine technology should be shared and distributed throughout the world on an equitable basis without one nation childishly claiming priority. National governments should regulate the pharmaceutical industries to achieve this whilst giving fair reward to the companies and individuals involved.

 Viruses do not respect national boundaries. An individual can only be protected when everyone is protected. Selfishness is not the answer to make provision for global health and immunity. 

 

Why?

 The UK is approaching 100,000 deaths from its C19 epidemic, and some commentators already claim that the UK already has a death of much more than 100,000 depending on how you count the casualties. The UK has a population of around 66 million.

South Korea has a population of just over 51 million. its death count from C19 is less than 1,400.

The British people should ask themselves why South Korea was able to control its epidemic so much more efficiently than the UK and other Western states for that matter. They should ask themselves why South Korea is now in a position to vaccinate its population according to WHO standards and not rush into just vaccinating each patient once and then waiting for a long period before the second vaccine is given. No country can rely upon vaccination programmes alone to solve the C19 problem; there must be effective test, track and isolation systems in place, as has been made clear by the WHO.

Why has South Korea been so much better than the UK. Is it because  the South Korean scientific and health experts are so much better than British ones?  Did the South Korean government heed the advice of its experts?Did the British government ignore the advice of its experts? Did the British government badly organise test, track and isolate systems.

The British now have one of the worst death rates from C19 in the world. We are approaching a brutal and gruesome total. The British people deserve to know what is going wrong and what went wrong and why, and how it can be fixed. They should then be able to vote accordingly.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

British Influence

 It is my opinion that the people who will feel the worse effects of Brexit will be British diplomats and senior politicians. The USA used the UK as a bridge with which to influence the EU. This connexion is now gone. The Republic of Ireland will now take Britain's place as the anglophone intermediary between the US and the EU. This will be to the chagrin of British diplomats whose voice will no longer be heard as strongly in the corridors of power.

Over the next 30 or so years the economic powers of the US, Germany, France and the UK will more than likely decline. China, India  and Russia will more than likely be on the rise. The USA and the Western European states share so many values that they will seek to become closer both politically and economically to offset the military and economic influence of China, Russia and India. The US and the  EU will probably ask Japan to join them. Britain will be forced by circumstances to follow suite  but because it is no longer a member of the EU Council, its influence will be considerably diminished. The USA will show decreasing reliance on the UK. Britain will be shut out from the new bodies which will seek to dominate world politics and economic activity. Britain will suffer the humiliation of the Republic of Ireland and other small European states having more influence. If Scotland leaves the UK to join the EU then it too will become more influential than what's left of the UK. Scotland will become another anglophone link to the EU for the US.

Britain will have to rely much more on the Entente Cordiale with France to retain some sort of influence in Europe. Britain will not have the power to upset France too much. Britain will feel left out; so the political elite will be determined to find ways to get back into to Europe and persuade its citizens to do so. Britain will then have to persuade the EU to let it rejoin the EU council of ministers in some sort of way. Britain will  be confronted by the "real politik" of assuming its place in the European family of nations by rejoining the Single Market and Customs Union or even the EU itself.

Britain's economic future relies upon  a strategic alliance with the EU, and to be cut off from European decision making will be more damaging than leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union - in the long run. The politicians who organised Brexit know this, and if they cannot find a way of achieving a strong connexion with the EU,the US and Japan, to protect Britain's economic, political, diplomatic and military future, then they will be replaced by an increasingly worried public. British politicians will lament their lack of power and influence and so will the nation. The sooner British politicians set about repairing the humiliation, and the political and diplomatic damage of Brexit the better.

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/research-insights/economy/the-world-in-2050.html#keyprojections

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-largest-10-economies-2030/

The storming of the Capitol

 In some respects, for me, the storming of the US Capitol and the insurrection was even more disturbing than the 9/11 attacks. The attacks of 9/11 were committed by foreigners with the terrible murder of 3,000 American and International citizens. The death toll of the January 6th was much lower but the attack was instigated by American citizens who were trying to overthrow democracy. Ironically they were not trying to rebel against a tyrant but they were rebelling against a democratically elected Congress which defends their liberty and freedom of speech. They were also rebelling against a fairly elected President elect who will also defend their liberty and freedom of speech. Violence against the US Congress has rightly been condemned, there can be no excuse. There can be no excuse for inciting a mob to overthrow democracy and this is as grave a crime in my eyes as actually doing these deeds.

It seems that being rational is now a minority pursuit. It is quite possible that the insurrection is not over; so the transition of power to the new President must be protected at all costs. From now on leaders of other countries especially the US's allies must set aside political differences and give the new US President all the international   support that he needs to guarantee liberty and democracy for all of us.

During my working life I have worked for many great US companies and I have met hundreds of American citizens and debated political issues with them in my spare time. Democrat or Republican most of them were very good people who were friendly towards me. They do not deserve to see the  horror of what happened to their country on 6th of January 2021 - it was a terrible beginning to their New Year.