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The large part of COVID-19 relief funds is going to big corporation. People who are likely to have been impacted the most by the pandemic in the Global South, such as smaller businesses, marginalised communities, women, and those in poverty, have been left out. Credit: Dionny Matos/IPS

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA , May 18 2021 (IPS)

Poverty and income inequality are being deepened as COVID-19 relief funds are handed out to large corporations instead of social protection programmes in developing countries, groups involved in a new study of COVID-19 bailouts have said.

A report by the Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC) civil society group showed that the vast majority of COVID-19 recovery funds in nine developing countries have gone to big corporations instead of toward welfare, small firms, or those working in the informal economy.

“The way COVID-19 relief has been implemented has worsened marginalisation, poverty, and inequality, including income, gender, and other inequalities, in some countries,” Matti Kohonen, FTC Director, told IPS.

“The large part of these relief funds is going to big corporations, but the people who are likely to have been impacted most by the pandemic in the Global South, such as smaller businesses, marginalised communities, women, and those in poverty, have been left out,” he said.

In what the group says is the first major analysis of public bailout funds disbursed in developing countries during the pandemic, FTC members looked at their use in Kenya, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Bangladesh, Nepal, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and India.

It found that in eight countries, an average of 63 percent of pandemic-related state aid went to big businesses, while only a quarter was spent on social protection schemes. Only 2 percent went to informal sector workers – despite the informal sector often making up a large part of the overall economies in many poor nations. Meanwhile, much of what was allocated to small and medium-sized companies never reached them and was diverted elsewhere, it claims.

India was examined separately because of a change in the government’s definition of a small business during the pandemic.

However, FTC believes that total corporate stimulus is likely to be even larger due to expected revenue shortfalls from tax cuts, especially in Bangladesh and India, or the cost of tax amnesty programmes, as in Bangladesh and Honduras.

Civil society groups operating in some of the countries in FTC’s report say that the findings were not entirely unexpected, but underlined the extent to which poor and marginalised groups had been apparently neglected by governments during the pandemic.

Speaking about the finding that in Kenya 92 percent of bailout funds had gone to large corporations, Chenai Mukumba of the Tax Justice Network Africa advocacy group, told IPS: “It was not surprising because the private sector has a lot of lobbying power to influence policy. But it was surprising that so little was getting to the people that needed it – the vulnerable and marginalised and especially those in the informal sector.”

In many poor countries the informal economic sector forms a large part of the overall economy with millions of people often relying solely on informal work to make a living. In Bangladesh, for instance, cash-in-hand workers make up 85 percent of the country’s labour force. The figure is similar in Kenya.

COVID-19 restrictions, including lockdowns and travel bans, have had a massive impact on such work as people have no longer been able to travel for work, or to sell goods at markets or outside their neighbourhoods. This has had a drastic effect on some families.

“Among vulnerable populations people have seen their quality of life really fall because of movement restrictions. The narrative we are hearing from people on the ground working with these communities is that there is an acceptance that governments need to bring in restrictions to stop COVID-19 spreading, but that those restrictions need to be accompanied by relief measures, and those relief measures have not been provided,” Mukumba said.

The FTC’s study focused on where COVID-19 bailout funds went, but did not go into detail about the exact reasons why they were disbursed in the way they were, nor did it look at individual disbursements to corporations or other entities.

But Kohonen and Mukumba told IPS there were a number of reasons resources did not go to social protection services, including both private sector lobbying and inadequate government capacities to identify vulnerable populations.

The report also does raise a warning about a lack of transparency around the disbursement of the recovery funds.

It cites how in Kenya, for instance, the World Bank provided $50 million in immediate funding to support the country’s emergency response – funds that are now unaccounted for.

Whatever the reasons behind the allocation of funds, the fact that so little went on social protection remains a serious problem which must be corrected, said Kohonen.

“Much more funding should have gone to social protection and too much went to big corporations which don’t need such a large proportion of relief funding,” he explained.

And even in some states where an ostensibly comparatively large part of relief funding was spent on social protection, the most vulnerable members of society still lost out.

Explaining the situation in Guatemala, where just over half of COVID-19 relief funding went on social protection measures, Ricardo Barrientos of the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies (ICEFI) which worked on the report, told IPS: “The government response, although mainly allocated for social protection, was too little and too late, and critically insufficient to make a meaningful impact for most Guatemalans.”

He explained that as a percentage of GDP, it amounted to 3.07 percent – of the countries surveyed only Honduras and Sierra Leone had a lower figure – and while most of this money was allocated to an emergency cash transfer programme it was concentrated in cities and urban areas, and failed to reach people who needed it most, especially Mayan indigenous people living in poverty and in appalling conditions in rural areas.

“While more than 70 percent of households survive in the informal sector, accounting for around 24 percent of GDP, the relief funds were ridiculously small for this important part of the Guatemalan economically active population. Many Guatemalans found themselves in the dramatic position of having to [decide whether to] go out and try to sell something, or die due to starvation. The saying was: ‘I prefer to die from COVID-19, than from hunger,’” he said.

The FTC is currently preparing reports on the use of COVID-19 bailouts in other countries, including more developing nations as well as developed states in Europe and elsewhere.

However, it is likely, FTC members say, that in at least the developing states a similarly large proportion of the funds is likely to have gone to large corporations.

“In Sierra Leone we saw most of the relief funds going to corporates and expect it will be a similar story in other countries in Africa we are still looking at,” said Mukumba.

FTC has passed its report on to governments and major COVID-19 bailout donors such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. It has yet to receive any direct response.

It has also called for governments and international financial institutions to adopt a series of measures to address what it calls a “dangerous imbalance in existing COVID-19 relief funds”.

These include implementing a minimum corporate tax rate of at least 25 percent, tax hikes for the wealthy, corporations, and high-income earners, setting up public beneficial ownership registries, to know who benefits from recovery spending, and profits made during the pandemic, and introducing greater accountability to provide transparency on the conditions attached and disbursements made of COVID-19 recovery funds, including World Bank funds.

 

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By Kate Chappell
KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 18 2021 (IPS)

On the occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 2021, drawing from IPS’s bank of features and opinion editorials published this year, we are re-publishing one article a day, for the next two weeks.

The original article was published on January 20 2021

A man walks by a storm drain piled high with plastic bottles and other garbage in Kingston, Jamaica. Credit: Kate Chappell

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jan 20 2021 (IPS) – For decades, every time it rains heavily in Jamaica, a daunting deluge of plastic bottles and bags, styrofoam and other garbage trundles its way down a network of countless gullies and streams. If they don’t get snagged somewhere, they end up in the Kingston Harbour or close to the beaches ringing the tourist-heavy North coast.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Jamaica, occurring regularly across the Caribbean and Latin America. It represents the burden of how the world is failing to cope with so much plastic waste. Its effect on the region, however, is relatively unique and compounded by several realities: budget and infrastructure challenges, geography and the lack an effective waste management strategy. In the past several years, more than a third of Caribbean countries have banned single use plastics, which may have reduced some waste, but the plague remains.

One study found that beaches and coastal areas across the region could contain triple the amount of plastic waste compared to the rest of the world.

According to a paper summarizing waste management in the region, only 54% of single use plastic waste ends up in a sanitary landfill, with much of the remainder landing in storm drains and the ocean.

The disposal of single use plastic in this region and around the world is increasingly coming under the spotlight as countries attempt to tackle global heating and adhere to the Paris Agreement. If countries do not reduce their consumption of single use plastics, emissions from plastics are due to increase threefold by 2050, which would thwart the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, according to the global think tank ODI.

Andrea Clayton is one of four authors of a study on the Latin American and Caribbean region, and she says there are many problems surrounding the use of plastic and its disposal.

“Plastics have been deemed as carcinogenic. There are health implications. And we are an island state with very finite resources, so it’s very important that we put in place sustainable environmental practices,” she says. “We are privileged to experienced sandy beaches and water, but we want that to carry on to the younger generations. We must be preserving island from a sustainable position,” she says. Clayton is a lecturer for sustainable development and Caribbean Maritime University in Kingston, Jamaica.

On a daily basis in the Latin American and Caribbean region, 145,000 tons of waste are disposed of in open dumpsites, including 17,000 tons of plastic. In total, roughly 300,000 tons of plastic is not processed or collected, so it ends up in illegal dumps or waterways.

Part of the root of the problem can be traced to the region’s lack of manufacturing and agricultural capacity, which leads to heavy dependence on the importation of goods, which, of course, means more plastic waste.

In the region, plastic accounts for 35% of marine waste, according to Clayton’s paper, which is called “Policy responses to reduce single-use plastic in the Caribbean”. For one of the most tourism dependent regions in the world, this represents not just a threat to the environment, but to the livelihoods of its residents as well.

“Marine pollution is therefore a particular problem for the Caribbean These states are major contributors to marine pollution but are also more dependent on the environmental quality of the Caribbean Sea, which is the base for the regions ‘sand, sun, and sea’ tourism package. Tourism directly contributes 15.5% of the regions gross domestic product and employs 14% of the labour force,” according to Clayton’s paper.

Credit: Kate Chappell

In Jamaica, there is a lack of a sense of urgency amongst legislators, as well as the existence of alternative ways of disposing of garbage, says Diana McCaulay, director of the Jamaica Environment Trust. “People just don’t have alternatives. We have inculcated certain habits and attitudes that garbage is a state responsibility. If I don’t see a garbage bin within three feet of me, I can throw it on the road,” she says. Unless there is a holistic approach to overhauling the entire system that is accompanied by public education, nothing will change, she adds. “We need proper garbage collection, recycling programs, unless all of those other things go along with education, nothing will change.”

For its part, governments across the region have adopted several tactics, through legislation, policies, public education and incentive programs, to mixed results. “Across the region, we tend to have the legislative approach, and what has happened in most jurisdictions is a top down government policy with very little lead time,” says Clayton. In Jamaica, the bans on plastic bags, straws and Styrofoam were all rolled out to the surprise of a lot of citizens.

McCaulay says some of these policies have had success. Jamaica announced a series of new legislation in Sept. 2018, with a plastic bag ban implemented on Jan. 1, 2019. This has gone relatively well, with most people now toting reusable bags to do their shopping. The ban on the distribution and manufacture of Styrofoam and plastic straws, enacted a year later, however, has been less successful. For food containers, merchants have simply switched to plastic containers that claim to be recyclable, but in actuality are not, McCaulay says. Most business owners, however, have adhered to the plastic straw ban.

One of the main sources of pollution is single use plastic bottles, which account for an average 21% of the trash collected during beach and coastal clean ups in the Caribbean. This problem demands a deposit return scheme, McCaulay says.

In Jamaica, this is being spearheaded by the private sector, but has yet to translate to a widespread effort.

Ollyvia Anderson, director of public relations and corporate communications for the National Environment and Planning Agency in Jamaica, says that overall, citizens were slow to adopt the new regulations due to a lack of knowledge. “We were a little slow out of the blocks in terms of the uptakes,” she says. “For a lot of Jamaicans, they were concerned about the alternatives, and a lot of persons were not aware of alternatives, so we used public educations to bring them up to speed.

We are now seeing conversions where that has occurred with bags and straws. In terms of the foam food containers, we are seeing less and less of those on the market. People are adjusting but hasn’t been without challenges.”

With this in mind, enforcement has been by the government as a tool to encourage behavior change. To date, 41 businesses and individuals have been charged under the National Resources Conservation Act, with 27 of those convicted. The maximum fine is JMD$2 million, which is almost US$14,000.

It’s not enough, says McCaulay. If she were to assign a grade to the government’s efforts, she would give them a ‘D+.’ “It’s the usual lots of rhetoric with a very wide implementation gap.”

 

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A screen shot taken from Prothom Alo's YouTube channel of Bangladeshi journalists protesting the arrest of the paper's correspondent, Rozina Islam, in Dhaka on May 17, 2021.

By External Source
NEW YORK, May 18 2021 (IPS-Partners)

The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Bangladeshi authorities to immediately release journalist Rozina Islam, withdraw the investigation into her, and to stop arresting journalists under the Official Secrets Act.

Islam, a senior correspondent for the daily newspaper Prothom Alo, was arrested today after the Health Ministry filed a complaint against her under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, according to news reports. She was accused of taking pictures of official documents under sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, and under sections 379 and 411 of the penal code, and could face up to 14 years in prison and the death penalty if charged and convicted, according to the laws. Islam is being held at the Shahbagh police station in Dhaka, the capital, Sajjad Sharif, managing editor of Prothom Alo, told CPJ in a phone call.

“We are deeply alarmed that Bangladesh officials detained a journalist and filed a complaint under a draconian colonial-era law that carries ridiculously harsh penalties,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher. “Bangladesh police and authorities should recognize that Rozina Islam is a journalist whose work is a public service and should immediately drop the case against her and allow her to go free.”

According to the Dhaka Tribune, Islam went to the Health Ministry in Dhaka around 3:30 p.m. today for a meeting with the health services secretary. Islam had been reporting on corruption and mismanagement in the health sector for the past month, Sharif told CPJ.

Islam was initially detained at the Health Ministry, located in Dhaka’s secretariat building—which houses several government offices—for more than five hours before being taken into police custody, Sharif told CPJ. The Dhaka Tribune reported that according to the police complaint, an on-duty police officer saw Islam in the office of Md Saiful Islam Bhuiyan, the personal secretary to the secretary of Health Services Division. Bhuiyan and Additional Secretary Kazi Jebunnesa Begum questioned and searched Islam, and allegedly found files and saw photos of documents on her phone, the Dhaka Tribune reported, citing the police complaint.

Islam denied taking any files from the room, according to the Dhaka Tribune.

According to the news reports, Islam fell ill and fainted during her detention at the secretariat.

Sharif told CPJ that her arrest was likely in retaliation for her reporting on alleged corruption.

The officer in charge of the Shahbagh police station declined to comment when reached by CPJ via phone. Maidul Islam, spokesperson for the Health Ministry, did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via email.

A woman carries supplies through a flooded street in Cap Haïtien, Haiti. After days of continuous rains, parts of Haiti's north suffered serious flooding in 2014, leaving more than a dozen dead and thousands homeless. The Haitian government, with UN support, responded with evacuations, temporary shelters, and food and supplies distributions. Credit: UN/Logan Abassi

By Robert W. Sandford
HAMILTON, Canada, May 18 2021 (IPS)

The year 2020 will forever be notorious for the COVID-19 pandemic but it might also be known by historians for a precipitous rise in second order climate change consequences — a new elephant in the room.

Familiar first order consequences, as documented in the World Meteorological Organization’s most recent State of the Global Climate report in April (at https://bit.ly/3eyrPwU), were the ongoing temperature rise over land and sea, melting sea ice and glaciers, higher sea levels, and changes in precipitation patterns.

Also in 2020, continuing a decade-long trend: widespread drought, heat waves, wildfires, cyclones, and flooding, especially in Africa and Asia but also in South America and the United States.

All these led to the second order consequences: Greater food insecurity and an accelerated explosion in involuntary human migration and displacement worldwide.

Between 2010 and 2019, weather-related events triggered an estimated average annual 23.1 million displacements of people. And almost 10 million displacements largely due to hydrometeorological hazards and disasters were recorded in the first half of 2020.

While most displacements take place within national borders, cross-border movements are also occurring.

UNU-INWEH, marking its 25th anniversary this year, was among the first international agencies to flag environmental degradation as one of the greatest environmental challenges of our times, warning as early as 2007 of mass migrations of people driven from degraded homelands within a single generation (https://bit.ly/3hn03oK).

A prescription for policy reform at every level of government at that time included harmonizing national policies across government ministries, addressing regional transboundary river basin management and, internationally, better integrating the work of global conventions.

While climate-related disasters have driven human migration since time immemorial, what is new is the protracted nature of the many displacement situations triggered by hydrometeorological events — people are unable to return to their former homes, finding themselves without options for integrating locally or settling elsewhere.

More and more climate refugees are becoming permanently displaced.

Mozambique, for example, experienced the one-two punch of cyclones Kenneth and Idai, setting the country’s development back decades. And Mozambique is just one of many places where climate shock after shock created ever larger populations of potentially permanently displaced people.

Many vulnerable people on the move, regardless of reason, end up settling in marginal high-risk areas where they are exposed to weather and climate hazards at a range of scales.

Weather hazards and human mobility inevitably intersect with larger social and political tensions and conflicts, making multi-hazard disaster risk reduction measures harder to orchestrate and proactively implement.

As the WHO made clear, the only way through this is the application of risk-based, all-of-society approaches as outlined in the WHO Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework.

The report also makes clear the compounding effect of climate change on food insecurity, involuntary human migration and the limits of global humanitarian action. And it is at this junction that the elephant in the room starts flattening the furniture.

Nearly 690 million people, or 9% of the world’s population, were under-nourished in 2019, and about 750 million, or nearly 10%, were exposed to severe levels of food insecurity. The number of people classified as living in crisis, emergency and famine conditions has reached almost 135 million people in 55 countries.

In 2020, 50 million people were hit by both climate-related disasters and by COVID-19 pandemic disruptions to the agricultural sector and the food supply chain, elevating levels of food insecurity, malnutrition and under-nourishment

Pandemic-related mobility restrictions and economic downturns have slowed humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people on the move, as well as efforts to support the recovery of persons whose lives were put on hold by earlier shocks.

Humanity in 2020 faced – and continues to face – what amounts to a perfect storm.

And more clouds loom. Hundreds of thousands of viruses in mammals and birds could infect people, potentially making pandemics more frequent, more lethal, more easily spread, and more damaging to the world economy than COVID-19.

Such diseases are linked to altered ecosystems – aquatic and terrestrial – and biodiversity loss. With expanding urbanisation, the draining wetlands and floodplains, converting forests to agricultural fields, etc., the interactions between species from different habitats are increasing, making the leap of zoonotic viruses from animals to humans more likely (http://www.ipbes.net/pandemics).

Arresting unsustainable natural resources development and management practices and reducing risks to prevent pandemics is an estimated 100 times less costly than responding to such pandemics.

People are being subjected to repeated and frequent displacement, leaving little time for recovery from one shock to the next. While this has implications for disaster preparedness and management, it also means we need solutions that foster resilience. Without such solutions soon, becoming a refugee in parts of the world could mean being a permanent refugee, living perpetually with compound risk and vulnerability.

Creating conditions to avert or minimize displacement, enabling people to safely stay where they are as much as possible, or to anticipate and draw on the benefits of dignified migration, requires that we modernize human mobility policies and platforms for cooperation, especially now as countries make decisions that will shape our post-Covid world, if indeed such a world will ever exist again.

The writer holds the Global Water Futures Chair at the UN University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment & Health (UNU-INWEH), which is supported by the Government of Canada and hosted at McMaster University, and which marks its 25th anniversary in 2021.

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, May 18 2021 (IPS)

Millions of people are expected to die due to delayed and unaffordable access to COVID-19 tests, treatment, personal protective equipment and vaccines. Urgent cooperation is desperately needed to save lives and livelihoods for all.

Vaccine apartheid
Thus far, rich countries have bought up most available vaccine supplies. By mid-April, rich countries had received more than 87 percent of the more than 700 million vaccine doses dispensed worldwide, while poor countries had received only 0.2 percent.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

A quarter of the former’s population had been vaccinated compared to one in 500 of the latter’s! By mid-May, less than a twelfth of the world’s population had been vaccinated, with ten rich countries getting four-fifths of all vaccines. The Pfizer vaccine is mainly reaching the world’s rich.

Despite CEO Alberto Bourla’s promise to ensure that poorer countries “have the same access as the rest of the world”, World Health Organization (WHO) data confirm that Pfizer has actually done little for the world’s poor.

After promising earlier not to profit from the pandemic, Moderna – which has never made a profit after a decade and no other revenue – has decided to profit from its vaccine. Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca have both vowed not to profit from vaccine sales during the pandemic.

Pfizer profits
According to a New York Times article, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer chose early to profit from COVID-19 vaccines, rejecting rival developers’ decisions not to profit from them during the pandemic.

In the first quarter of 2021, Pfizer sold vaccines worth US$3.5 billion, its greatest revenue source. Vaccine sales are fast overtaking Pfizer’s cholesterol medicine, Lipitor, which sold about US$125 billion over the last 15 years.

But profits from vaccine sales have been deliberately obscured. The US pays US$19.50 for each Pfizer dose, while Israel paid over 50% more to accelerate vaccinating its citizens. Last week, the European Union agreed to pay more than before for its vaccines.

Pfizer made US$9.6 billion in profits in 2020, before vaccine revenue was significant. Already highly profitable, Pfizer did not need or take US federal funds under Operation Warp Speed. But its vaccine development partner BioNTech received much support from the German government.

CEO Bourla signed the 2019 Business Roundtable pledge to serve a range of ‘stakeholders’, not only shareholders. Pfizer even joined Covax in January 2021. Selling mainly to rich countries, by April, Pfizer had earned around US$900 million in pre-tax profits from vaccine sales.

Pfizer now expects US$26 billion in such revenue vaccine sales this year, instead of its earlier projection of US$15 billion. It now expects a massive revenue stream with COVID-19 becoming endemic, requiring booster shots. The company is changing business strategy accordingly.

What the pandemic demands
With the COVID-19 virus rapidly mutating, almost exponentially, this is not only of concern to poor people and nations, left far behind. Containing the pandemic requires vaccinating the whole world as soon as possible.

Several virus mutations are more contagious, with some deadlier than the original, and some more resistant to existing treatments or vaccines. Although mRNA vaccine developers believe they can be quickly modified against new mutations, there is little disagreement over the urgent need to stem the contagion.

Since 1995, patents have been enforced internationally via the WTO Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. TRIPS prevents governments giving compulsory licences allowing “someone else to produce a patented product or process without the consent of the patent owner”.

But now, most WTO members support a temporary waiver for COVID-19 tests, treatments, vaccines, diagnostics and other technologies. Although the waiver has become all the more urgent as the pandemic toll rises rapidly, it remains blocked in the WTO.

Technology transfer needed
The waiver is legally necessary for progress, but hardly sufficient. Much more is needed to urgently vaccinate the world. Vaccine production has also been constrained by companies refusing to share knowledge and technology.

Even when companies have benefited from government subsidies and public research, private monopolies have little incentive to quickly supply many more vaccines affordably. Enabling and, if needed, requiring knowledge and technology transfer are clearly necessary.

Not a single major vaccine or pharmaceutical company has joined the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative to share such knowledge. Licences and technical know-how to produce vaccines have been denied to many potential manufacturers, even those with the necessary facilities.

Taxpayer-funded basic and applied research has been essential for COVID-19 vaccine development. For example, US National Institutes of Health (NIH) patented technology is necessary to make mRNA vaccines, with Pfizer using BioNTech’s licence.

Noting that “the Biden administration has already persuaded Johnson & Johnson to share its technology with Merck to boost domestic production of its single-dose vaccine”, Jayati Ghosh suggests that “other companies that have benefited from public support could be pressed to do the same”.

“Moderna… has already declared that it will not enforce its patent. But its… vaccine uses some knowledge that it has licensed (and paid for) from other companies, which could in turn sue any other producer using the same technology.” The TRIPS waiver would eliminate such legal threats, allowing production to be rapidly scaled up.

What the world needs now
The current generation of COVID-19 vaccines only mitigates the severity of infections, rather than eradicates the disease, as with polio or smallpox. Thus, our world is now trapped in a seemingly endless spiral of ‘catch-up’ vaccine development with new boosters to mitigate perceived new threats.

To achieve real progress, the world desperately needs cooperation, not only among researchers working for competing vaccine developers, but also among governments who can – and must – end the protracted genocide and greater catastrophe the world is now in.

Warning “that private vaccine producers have little financial incentive to meet current global needs”, Ghosh also makes the case for public production in the US and elsewhere.

Citing a health advocacy organisation report, she argues that “the US government can build a facility to produce enough mRNA vaccine manufacturing capacity to vaccinate the entire world in one year, with each dose costing only $2”.

Sharing knowledge and working together are clearly needed to accelerate innovation. As governments have paid, directly and indirectly, for vaccine development, they can now quickly accelerate further progress needed. Previously, I suggested using the 1980 Bayh-Dole law, but in fact, this is specifically excluded by the US government contract with Moderna.

Instead, Dean Baker has noted that Section 1498 of the US commercial code provides the necessary legal authority. Thus, needed technological expertise, including trade or industrial secrets, can be either bought or otherwise secured by government authorities.

 

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Job Maseko blew up a German ship but his bravery was not properly recognised because he was black, campaigners say.

At least 2,700 people arrive in Ceuta from Morocco, with some swimming in using rubber rings.

Extreme weather associated to climate change has resulted in million of dollars in loss and damage in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the past few years. Credit: Kenton X. Chance/IPS

By SWAN / A.D. McKenzie
KINGSTON / PARIS, May 17 2021 (IPS)

The “all-virtual” Latin America and the Caribbean Climate Week (LACCW) that took place May 11-14 highlighted islands’ particular vulnerabilities in the face of both climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic. But the event – hosted by the Dominican Republic – also provided “important momentum for a successful UN Climate Change Conference” (COP 26) in November in Glasgow, according to the United Nations.

When that conference takes place, island states will no doubt be among the most vocal in calling for urgent climate action, again – just as they did at COP 21, joining the “1.5-to-stay-alive” stance in the runup to the Paris Agreement. Yet, island governments and their supporters aren’t just waiting around for the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases to listen to them (or to commit fully to limiting the rise in global warming to 1.5C). Instead, many are banding together to exchange ideas and to come up with sustainable measures, confronted by ever-present disaster.

James Ellsmore

Besides LACCW, initiatives that have been bringing islands together include Island Innovation, a group founded and directed by James Ellsmore, who organized a high-level “Island Finance Forum” in April. This four-day virtual event featured a line-up of entrepreneurs, non-governmental organizations, academics and other experts.

Also participating were officials like Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda (which suffered a devastating hurricane in 2017), and Pearnel Charles Jr., a senator and government minister in Jamaica – which has warned about the severe economic problems linked to climate change.

Ellsmore told IPS that Island Innovation began with a newsletter and a series of virtual events, and has evolved into a community of more than 100,000 members. In addition, Ellsmore is the co-founder of the NGO Solar Head of State (SHOS), which “works with governments to push action on renewable energy”.

The NGO has focused on small island developing states, with solar installations on the Office of the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Government House in Saint Lucia and the Presidential Palace of the Maldives. Ellsmore said that SHOS is now working with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States and the Pacific Island Development Forum to install solar on the official residences “across these organizations’ combined 24 member states”.

Besides working in the Caribbean, Ellsmore (who grew up on a farm in Shropshire, England) has worked in the United States and Colombia and is now based in Lisbon, Portugal.

The next global event that he and Island Innovation are organizing will be the Virtual Island Summit, Sept. 6 – 12. He spoke with IPS reporter A.D. McKenzie via email about these and other ventures. An edited version of the interview follows.

IPS: Islands are on the frontline of the battle against climate change. Over the past years, you have been highlighting this through a series of initiatives and conferences. Can you tell us how this work began?

JAMES ELLSMORE: Island Innovation initially started as a network, sharing sustainable development stories from rural, remote and island communities across the globe. I saw that these island communities were facing many similar issues, and there was an opportunity for them to connect on a bigger scale and collaborate. Islands as different as Greenland, Barbados, Okinawa and Saint Helena share certain commonalities and we created opportunities to build “digital bridges” to connect them. The community now include over 100,000 participants from across the globe.

Although islands are so diverse, they share many common issues, of course the effects of climate change being among the most pressing. By creating this virtual space, remote islands from opposite corners of the globe can come together to highlight challenges they face, share solutions and promote solutions for sustainable development.

IPS: At the recent Leaders Summit on Climate, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said: “Mother Nature is not waiting. The past decade was the hottest on record. Dangerous greenhouse gases are at levels not seen in 3 million years. Global temperature has already risen 1.2 degrees Celsius – racing toward the threshold of catastrophe. Meanwhile, we see ever rising sea-levels, scorching temperatures, devastating tropical cyclones and epic wildfires.” What can islands do amidst this crisis?

J.E.: I think it’s important to note that although islands, and particularly Small Island Developing States (SIDS), are very much on at the frontline of climate change, they have been a clear voice in pushing climate change to the forefront of the agenda, as well as proving their resilience. Promotion of innovative finance models and economic diversification is key to support island communities and SIDS, and this was one of the main focal points in our recent Island Finance Forum. At the United Nations, the leaders calling for climate action are often from islands, but these efforts to call for change affect everyone.

IPS: Your most recent conference, organized by your group Island Innovation and held virtually, focused on finance. It attracted some 6,000 registrants, with 70 speakers that included prime ministers, climate finance experts, activists and others. What was the motivation for organizing this conference?

J.E.: Our annual event, the Virtual Island Summit covers a wide range of topics. Listening to attendee feedback is important to me and I found that a common question that came out of the Virtual Island Summit was how island communities can get access to the sustainable finance solutions and projects on offer. We launched the Island Finance Forum as a way to connect our island stakeholders with the financial experts, with a focus on sustainable and inclusive finance structures for island communities. So often there is enthusiasm for change but there need to be channels for financing action.

IPS: What did you look for in the potential speakers?

J.E.: The Island Finance Forum was a high-level event and we wanted to have the senior financiers and experts who are responsible for projects that are making sustainable and economic changes in island communities. It’s also very important for us to have island speakers at our events who can give that first-hand insight and experience. We included high-level island politicians such as the Prime Ministers of Fiji, Vanuatu and Antigua & Barbuda. Speakers also hailed from multinational finance institutions such as BNP Paribas and local island banks such as NCB Capital Markets in the Caribbean.

IPS: What do you think participants gained from the information provided and the discussions that took place?

J.E.: I believe we achieved what we had set out to do, which is connect island stakeholders with “decision-makers” and financial experts. As with all our events, we created a space to share and exchange knowledge and I hope that our stakeholders can take away these updates on successful and sustainable projects that can be implemented on their own islands. Our events include hundreds of islands and this diversity of participation is really exciting.

IPS: Your next conference will be the Virtual Island Summit, Sept. 6 – 12. What will be the major themes of this gathering?

J.E.: The Virtual Island Summit is much broader in scope and will cover all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. There will of course be a strong focus on solutions to mitigating climate change, as well as discussion on the blue economy, agriculture, tourism and post-Covid recovery. The Virtual Island Summit will also feed into our involvement at the COP26, where we are planning to create an “Island Space” to share insights into island communities. A big part of this work is breaking down silos and we always ensure we include representatives from government, NGOs, academia and the private sector.

IPS: How do you expect this conference to help islands in their fight against climate change and in addressing other issues that affect them, including the Covid-19 pandemic?

J.E.: Through facilitating these important global conversations and collaborations. Not just during the week of the event but beyond, through our online community where conversations flourish, and we continue to learn from each other. Our events highlight that island communities experience similar problems, but if we can continue to make connections between them to exchange knowledge on how to respond and act on issues, this can only be a good thing.

By Sania Farooqui
NEW DELHI, India, May 17 2021 (IPS)

Somalia is one of the most complex regions of the world, with threats and political instability, extreme weather conditions, movement of internally displaced people (IDPs), decades of conflict, poverty-related deprivation, poor health and communicable diseases that are killing people. There is a constant risk of gender violence making women, children and members of minority groups particularly vulnerable, and more so during displacement or while seeking work. Three decades of civil war and instability have weakened Somalia’s health system and contributed to it having some of the lowest health indicators in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic has added yet another strain on its tremendously fragile infrastructure presenting unexpected challenges and dilemmas.

Dr. Deqo Mohamed

This report by Oxfam states that, “the multitude of crises and rates of inflation have left the majority of families food insecure and without income, halted education and health services, and exacerbated existing vulnerabilities and the incidence of violence. Needs far exceeds the current available resources and capacity.”

One of the doctors leading healthcare and currently involved in the fight against COVID-19 in Somalia is Dr. Deqo Aden Mohamed, an obstetrician-gynecologist, founder of ‘The Hagarla Institute’ and co-founder of ‘The Somali Cancer Society’.

Dr. Deqo has been working full time on the ground in Somalia, and leads multiple projects on maternal health and the National Call Center for COVID-19, and is part of the Somali National Taskforce for COVID-19, 2020. In an interview given to me, Dr. Deqo says, “the pandemic has been exhaustive, we created a national call centre last year, which helped reduce the effect of COVID-19 to some extent. We have a very young population in Somalia who are all below 40 and they were able to recover from COVID-19 with very mild symptoms. A few elderly with comorbidity needed beds, but we were not ready when COVID-19 hit last year. We barely had 19 beds, and we didn’t even have ventilators.

“The good thing in Somalia is that because we have been through several famine and natural disasters, people or the government or the non-profit organizations/ international ones, are set in their mechanisms, where they are able to quickly react in emergency situations. They were able to set up one hospital last year very quickly, which also was just not enough.” Dr. Deqo said.

Last year amongst many, Somalia also lost one of its fearless and most compassionate humanitarian whose life’s work gave hope to tens of thousands in her native Somalia, while inspiring countless others worldwide. Also known as “Mama Hawa” and “the Mother Teresa of Somalia”, Dr Hawa Abdi, gave refuge to 90,000 displaced Somali’s in a refugee camp close to the Adbi hospital, which was dubbed as Hawa Village. It is estimated that two million were served by her foundation over a period of 35 years. It was in these camps, Dr. Deqo grew up feeding the refugees her mother was harboring and shaping her destiny of becoming a doctor herself.

“My mother, (Dr Abdi) started the Hawa Abdi Foundation, it was started with the goal to help mothers have access to maternal healthcare. But once the civil war began, it transitioned from rural healthcare to an organization that did everything. It was very inspiring to watch her, the way she stood up as a woman, the way she negotiated with the elderly, the way she taught that your femininity should not hold you back, because in a society as a woman you are undermined. She was a strong woman,” Dr. Deqo added.

What began as a one-room clinic, changed the course of healthcare in Somalia, and helped in alleviating poverty and suffering in the country. However, the health care system in Somalia still remains one of the weakest, poorly resourced and inequitably distributed in the world and in the absence of functioning public sector facilities, the country’s healthcare system has been “vertically privatised.”

While private health services and the pharmaceutical sectors largely remain unregulated, they are the backbone of healthcare in the country. Most funding for the health sector comes from international donors and is ‘off-budget’.

“The government runs only three hospitals here, so imagine in Mogadishu we have 4 million people and just three hospitals. The second wave of COVID-19 was much harder than last year. What we lost in one years time, we lost in one month in 2021,” says Dr. Deqo.

Currently the country is grappling with the triple threat of drought, COVID-19 and insecurity in Mogadishu which is driving severe humanitarian needs in Somalia. Somalia has already seen a 48% increase in deaths from COVID-19, doubling of cases from 6687 to 13,812 cases in just 59 days. The recent conflict in Mogadishu, is adding to the difficulties in deliveries of humanitarian services in several parts of the country.

In a statement issued by International Rescue Committee, (IRC) Richard Crothers, IRC Somalia Country Director said, “Over 80% of the country is suffering from drought conditions, cattle and crops are dying as the frequency of climate-related hazards increase. We’ve seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths over the last month, with many cases going undetected and untested. In a country already suffering from severe humanitarian crises, with almost 6 million people in need, the drought will drive even more displacement and food insecurity. Now more than ever we need an increase in support and funding in order to meet the rising humanitarian need.”

In this report, co-authored by Dr. Deqo, lack of access to screening services and important information about COVID-19, could put millions of internally displaced people in Somali settlement camps at risk.

“Three million internally displaced people (IDP) live in more than 2,000 settlement camps in Somalia. The large-scale camps are a tinderbox for potential outbreaks of infectious disease. Overcrowded conditions restrict opportunities for physical distancing and the camps often lack reliable access to basic amenities such as running water, soap, and medical treatment. The humanitarian crisis is already acute in Somalia,” the report states.

“The government wants to help, they communicate everyday, but the capacity is very limited, they don’t have funding, allocation of funding to government healthcare is very limited, basically they cannot run their own hospital, so that’s the situation.

“…If we have people in place – those with the right skills, knowledge and moral compass, things will be fine. Right now, as a doctor I am putting my energy and resources to have the best people in place. The country was brain drained, it lost two generations due to civil war and I think that’s what we are missing. I cannot solve all the issues from the ground, but I think we have the best opportunities in Somalia right now, and if we can learn from the mistakes, we can have a good healthcare system in the country,” says Dr. Deqo.

Somalia is among the first African countries to receive doses of COVID-19 vaccine delivered through the COVAX Facility. According to UNICEF, 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines arrived in Somalia, but health officials say less than half the doses have been used. One of the major reasons according to this report is “the Islamist militant group Al-Shabaab’s warning in Somalia that people are used as “guinea pigs” for AstraZeneca, large sections of Africans are steering clear of vaccines.”

Despite mechanisms in place to react quickly, as mentioned earlier by Dr. Deqo, the broader challenge for Somalia to battle through is the combination of a weak healthcare system, raging political and humanitarian crisis and adding to this, vaccine hesitancy must be a priority for the Somali government to overcome. If not, then COVID-19 will not only remain a regional threat, but possibly a global one as well, given the aggressive and uncontrollable mutation of the virus, which Somalia cannot afford to risk.

The author is a journalist and filmmaker based out of New Delhi. She hosts a weekly online show called The Sania Farooqui Show where Muslim women from around the world are invited to share their views.

 

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The prime minister promises the election will be held soon, and will be free and fair.

Sudanese youth live with continuous insecurity due to climate change vulnerability, including droughts, desertification, land degradation and food insecurity. Courtesy: Albert Gonzalez Farran/ UNAMID/ CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

By Esther Ngumbi
URBANA, Illinois, May 17 2021 (IPS)

Recently, I participated in a Congressional hearing on the “Effects of climate change in Africa”, before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and Internal Organizations, chaired by Congresswoman, Karen Bass.

Without a doubt, climate change is arguably, the most pressing challenge of our time, the biggest threat to humanity and an increasing threat to Africa and our global world.  Because of climate change, millions of African citizens, many of whom depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood, are hungry, poor, food insecure, and displaced.

Tens of millions of African citizens are driven from their homes by floods, storms, intense cyclones, and droughts. Sadly, these numbers are expected to increase. Tragically, it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities that are suffering.

Helping African countries to address the escalating climate change crisis is the right thing to do for the United States. African Governments cannot do it alone, and nor should they

Already in 2021, flooding events have damaged homes, displaced communities, and killed African citizens from several countries, from Angola to Zimbabwe. But if it is not flooding, then it’s usually a drought that’s harming members of the continent.

Repetitive and vicious cycles of drought and famines have become common in Africa. As a result, millions of African citizens are living in abject poverty. Millions have been forced to migrate-and along the migration paths, women and girls are often raped, leaving lifelong scars that are hard to erase.

Then what drought hasn’t taken, crop-eating invasive insects often take. For instance, East Africa is still recovering from a plague of locusts – the most extensive and worst outbreaks the region had seen in generations.  Before the locusts were the fall armyworm which affected more than 44 African countries. I am an Entomologist, and science predicts a future where insect invasions will become common.

While the impacts of climate change have been enormous, we MUST applaud African countries because they have not walked away from these issues.

They consider the climate crisis a serious threat and have boldly stepped up to cut greenhouse gas emissions and address the climate change crisis. African countries are members of international climate agreements, including the 2016 Paris Climate Accord, and have fulfilled the critical requirements.

And many governments are prioritizing climate-proofing and mitigation development activities in critical sectors like agriculture and energy. Further, they’ve launched new initiatives such as the African Development Bank’s Desert to Power project, and the Great Green Wall initiative.

The truth, however, is that African leaders cannot do this alone. And nor should they. The U.S. must help and here’s how.

First, the US must cut its own greenhouse emissions and continue treating climate change as an essential element of U.S. foreign policy and national security. They contribute more to climate change than African nations and curbing their own contributions would help Africa – and all nations. the U.S. must live up to the promises made at the recently concluded White House Climate Summit.

Second, the U.S. should help African countries build a climate-resilient and vaccinated agricultural sector. Unless African agriculture is resilient, even the most ambitious climate mitigation and action initiatives will bear minimal returns.

Indeed, African agriculture must modernize and doing so demands significant investments in irrigation, better roads, seed systems, post-harvesting systems and climate smart agricultural and technologies. This will pave the way for the attainment of African food security, self-sustainability and facilitate a more stable and prosperous African continent. Launched initiatives must be guided by recent science evidence.

Third, beyond the agricultural sector, the US can help African countries build their renewable energy sector. Doing so will create millions of jobs.

Fourth, the US must commit to sharing resources, expertise, and capabilities with the African countries. Furthermore, the US can work with African countries and enhance their ability to tap on big data.

Finally, as an agricultural scientist and an Assistant Professor at a Land Grant University, I see firsthand how one of the ways the US can help is to increase the funding through US Feed the Future Initiatives. This would allow for more collaborative research between African universities and US universities. Initiatives funded by the US should always focus on what African countries need and not vice versa.

Climate change is the most urgent crisis of our times. Helping African countries to address the escalating climate change crisis is the right thing to do for the United States. African Governments cannot do it alone, and nor should they.  African lives are at stake. Now is the time to ACT by looking to science.

Dr. Esther Ngumbi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and a Senior Food Security Fellow with the Aspen Institute, New Voices.

As the Basketball Africa League tips off former NBA player Ben Uzoh says the new competition has the ability to 'change lives'.

By Catherine Wilson
CANBERRA, Australia, May 17 2021 (IPS)

On the occasion of World Environment Day, 5 June 2021, drawing from IPS’s bank of features and opinion editorials published this year, we are re-publishing one article a day, for the next two weeks.

The original article was published on January 4 2021

Contamination of rivers and streams by mine waste in the vicinity of the Panguna copper mine in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson

CANBERRA, Australia, Jan 4 2021 (IPS) – Local communities in the vicinity of the abandoned Panguna copper mine, have taken decisive action to hold the global mining multinational, Rio Tinto, accountable for alleged environmental and human rights violations during the mine’s operations between 1972 and 1989.

The mine operated in the mountains of central Bougainville in Papua New Guinea until 1989.

The complaint by 156 residents was lodged with the Australian Government in September by Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre and subsequently accepted in November, paving the way for a non-judicial mediation process.

“We and the communities we are working with have now entered into a formal conciliation process with Rio Tinto facilitated by the Australian OECD National Contact Point and talks with the company will begin very shortly,” Keren Adams, Legal Director at the Human Rights Law Centre in Melbourne told IPS.

Rio Tinto was the majority owner of the Panguna mine through its operating company, Bougainville Copper Ltd, with a 53.8 percent stake. However, 17 years after it began production in 1972, anger among indigenous landowners about contaminated rivers and streams, the devastation of customary land and inequity in distributing the extractive venture’s profits and benefits triggered an armed rebellion in 1989. After the mine’s power supply was destroyed by sabotage, Rio Tinto fled Bougainville Island and the site became derelict during the decade long civil war which followed.

The mine area, which is still controlled by the tribal Mekamui Government of Unity, comprising former rebel leaders, hasn’t been decommissioned and the environmental legacy of its former operations never addressed.

Now, according to the complaint, “copper pollution from the mine pit and tailings continues to flow into local rivers … The Jaba-Kawerong river valley downstream of the mine resembles a moonscape with vast mounds of grey tailings waste and rock stretching almost 40 km downstream to the coast. Levees constructed at the time of the mine’s operation are now collapsing, threatening nearby villages.”

Gutted mine machinery and infrastructure are scattered across the site of the Panguna mine in the mountains of Central Bougainville, an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

There are further claims that contamination of waterways and land is causing long-term health problems amongst the indigenous population, such as skin diseases, diarrhoea, respiratory illnesses, and pregnancy complications.

Helen Hakena, Director of the Leitana Nehan Women’s Development Agency in Bougainville’s main town of Buka, fully supports the action taken by her fellow islanders.

“It is long overdue. It is going to be very important because it was the big issue which caused the Bougainville conflict. It will lay to rest the grievances which caused so much suffering for our people,” Hakena told IPS.

The Bougainville civil war, triggered by the uprising at the mine, led to a death toll of 15,000-20,000 people.

The people of Bougainville believe that Rio Tinto has breached the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises by failing both to take action to mitigate foreseeable environmental, health and safety-related impacts at the mine and respect the human rights of the communities affected by its extractive activities. The Human Rights Law Centre claims that “the mine pollution continues to infringe nearly all the economic, social and cultural rights of these indigenous communities, including their rights to food, water, health, housing and an adequate standard of living.”

“While we do not wholly accept the claims in the complaint, we are aware of deteriorating mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas and acknowledge that there are environmental and human rights considerations,” Rio Tinto responded in a public statement.

“Accepting the AusNCP’s ‘good offices’ shows that we take this complaint seriously and remain ready to enter into discussions with the communities that have filed the complaint, along with other relevant communities around the Panguna mine site, and other relevant parties, such as Bougainville Copper Ltd, the Autonomous Bougainville Government and PNG Government,” the statement continued.

In 2016, Rio Tinto divested its interest in Bougainville Copper Ltd, the operating company, and its shares were acquired by the PNG and Bougainville governments. Simultaneously, the corporate giant announced that it rejected corporate responsibility for any environmental impacts or damage.

Panguna mine’s copper and gold await political settlement before extraction can resume. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

Mineral exploration in Bougainville in the 1960s, followed by the construction of the Panguna open-cut copper mine, occurred when the island region was under Australian administration. It would subsequently become a massive source of internal revenue Papua New Guinea, which was granted Independence in 1975. During its lifetime, the Panguna mine generated about US$2 billion in revenue and accounted for 44 percent of the nation’s exports.

The mining agreement negotiated between the Australian Government and Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia in the 1960s didn’t include any significant environmental regulations or liability of the company for rehabilitation of areas affected by mining.

There has been no definitive environmental assessment of the Panguna site since it was forced to shut down. However, about 300,000 tonnes of ore and water were excavated at the mine every day. In 1989, an independent report by Applied Geology Associates in New Zealand noted that significant amounts of copper and other heavy metals were leaching from the mine and waste rock dumps and flowing into the Kawerong River. Today, the water in some rivers and streams in the mine area is a luminescent blue, a sign of copper contamination.

Bougainville residents’ action comes at the end of a challenging year for Rio Tinto. It is still reeling from revelations earlier this year that its operations destroyed historically significant Aboriginal sacred sites, estimated to be 46,000 years old, in the vicinity of its iron ore mine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company’s CEO, Jean-Sebastien Jacques, has subsequently resigned.

Nevertheless, Adams is optimistic about the corporate giant’s willingness to engage with Bougainville and PNG stakeholders.

“In the first instance, we hope that this non-judicial process will help to facilitate discussions to explore whether Rio Tinto will make these commitments to address the impacts of its operations. If not, then the communities will be asking the Australian OECD National Contact Point to investigate the complaint and make findings about whether Rio Tinto has breached its human rights and environmental obligations,” the Human Rights Law Centre’s Legal Director said. A full investigation, if required, could take up to a year.

Ultimately, the islanders are seeking specific outcomes. These include Rio Tinto’s serious engagement with them to identify solutions to the urgent environmental and human rights issues; funding for an independent environmental and human rights impact assessment of the mine; and contributions to a substantial independently managed fund to enable long term rehabilitation programs.

Otherwise, Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre predicts that “given the limited resources of the PNG and Bougainville governments, it is almost inevitable that if no action is taken by Rio Tinto, the environmental damage currently being caused by the tailings waste will continue and worsen.”

 

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Coach Alan Major says he is proud of US rapper J Cole as he makes his debut for Rwandan side Patriots in the Basketball Africa League.

Nigeria's Asisat Oshoala is lost for words to describe her joy at being the first African to win the European Women's Champions League.

COVID-19 vaccinations are key to overcoming the pandemic, says the World Health Organizations (WHO). The UN agency has approved the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, which is a prerequisite for inclusion in the global vaccine solidarity initiative, COVAX. Credit: Unsplash/Ivan Diaz via UN News

By Sunil J. Wimalawansa
NEW JERSEY, USA, May 17 2021 (IPS)

The global community is conducting a rapid vaccination program against the SARS.Cov-2 virus, using several vaccines, authorised for emergency use. To date, the percentages of adults vaccinated vary between less than 2% to over 90% in different countries.

Vast socio-economic variation is primarily responsible for this disparity. Moreover, while the industrialised countries have secured more than adequate COVID vaccines, the middle- and low-income countries (MLIC) are significantly lagging.

Globally, the vaccination rate is slowing down, scarcity in some countries and refusal in others. At the current rate of vaccination, less than half of adults in MLIC countries will be vaccinated by the end of 2021.

Therefore, the focus of WHO and MLIC countries must be directed to improving this grim situation.

Concerns about achieving herd immunity

The increasing virulence of new mutations (i.e., variants) of SARS-CoV-2 [i.e., increasing reproductive number (R0)] increased R0 from original SARS.Cov-2higher infectivity, and the human behaviour, achieving a global herd immunity needs vaccinating approximately 85% of adults, in the absence of vaccinating children under 12 years.

Considering that between 15 and 30% of adults and adolescents (and parents of younger children) are reluctant to be vaccinated, and children up to 16 years are not approved for COVID vaccination in most countries, achieving herd immunity is impossible soon.

On May 5th, the FDA and the CDC approved vaccination of children between 12 and 15 years in the USA. However, vaccination of even 70% of children between 12 and 18 is insufficient for achieving herd immunity.

Although millions of people have recovered from COVID infection, at the current rate, accomplishing herd immunity collectively from immunisation and post-infection immunity) is hard.

In addition, there are concerns about short-term and long-term ill-effects, known and unknown, and to what degree is vaccinating children justified given their generally low (in the absence of obesity and deficient vitamin D) probability of being seriously harmed or killed by COVID-19.

Based on the availability of vaccines and the reasonable immune responses to defend against current and likely future variants, vaccination of adults and adolescents has become an ongoing process.

Barriers to achieving herd immunity

The collective effects of those mentioned above likely to prevent a sufficient percentage of people fully immunised within a given period to achieve and maintain herd immunity. Failure will allow the virus to spread within and from country to country for years to come, as it disseminated across the world during the early part of the pandemic.

It demonstrates the importance of honest and open collaborations of all counties, working coherently to achieve global herd immunity, enabling the elimination of SARS.Cov-2 from the world.

Herd immunity cannot be achieved through vaccination and actual infection unless (A) pharmaceutical (vaccine) companies eliminate their greed, (B) revoke or share restrictive patents related to COVID vaccines and their production for a greater good, (C) provide adequate doses of effective vaccines free or at a discount for the MLICs, (D) motivate and incentivise those who are reluctant to get vaccinated, and (E) maintain wearing facemasks and avoiding mass gatherings for months to come.

Even if the mentioned barriers are overcome, the inability to access, secure or purchase COVID-vaccines by most MLICs will prevent achieving herd immunity. Despite vast propaganda, the World Health Organization (WHO), GAVI institute, and industrialised (G-20) countries seem not to pay attention to overcome these critical barriers promptly.

Vaccination of children

The recently started vaccine clinical trials in children between age 5 and 16 years is expected to be completed by the end of summer/fall 2021. Assuming there are no complications or unexpected developments, COVID vaccines for children ages five upwards are likely to be approved towards the end of the year.

Despite rhetoric by vaccine companies and certain administrators, the scenario could worsen because both the natural and vaccine-induced immunity fail to sustain for more than one year.

Still, concerns remain about currently unknown longer-term ill-effects of vaccine and the degree to which these uncertainties can be justified, depending on the near-term likelihood of COVID-19 infection versus harm to a child.

While clinical trials are ongoing in children, the wealthy countries should consider (A) waiving patents related to the COVID vaccine, (B ) postponing vaccination of children under 16 years, and (C) divert millions of doses of surplus vaccines and those ear-marked for younger children to MLIC countries immediately.

The approval status of COVID vaccines

COVID vaccines are currently using, via “emergency use authorisation” (EUA) by regulatory authorities, including the FDA. EUA is required by federal law when the intended agent is not licensed and there is no effective treatment.

However, this temporary approval status under the EUA for COVID-vaccines will be- or arguably should be-rescinded when alternative agents, such as vitamin D3, ivermectin, etc., are approved for prevention or treatment of COVID.

It is noteworthy that none of the COVID vaccines is licensed for the prevention or treatment of COVID. Consequently, COVID-19 vaccine consent forms and promotional material mandated to indicate that vaccine has not been approved or licensed by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) but authorised only for emergency use (see below).

Moreover, federal law prohibits mandating investigational agents (i.e., COVID vaccines) by states, employers, school administrators, etc.: i.e., medicines authorised under the EUA rule cannot be legally mandated. Thus, people have the right to refuse.

While organisations and entities are encouraged to facilitate and provide vaccination to employees and students, the law prevents them from making vaccination compulsory. While vaccination is likely to prevent complications and deaths, employee and students have the right to decline. If the regulators, such as the FDA, eventually licensed vaccines, guidelines will change.

Industry disclaimers associated with COVID vaccine

The US Federal government and the FDA have mandated the inclusion of specific disclaimers by manufacturers and state governments on COVID-19 vaccines. The following statements appear in the consent forms informing the recipients prior to getting the vaccine and advertisements.

The disclaimer states, “I have informed that this COVID-19 vaccine is an unapproved drug permitted under an Emergency Use Authorisation from the FDA. I have been informed of alternatives to receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the risks and benefits of alternatives. I have also been informed of the significant known and potential risks and benefits of this COVID-19 vaccine and the extent to which such risks and benefits are unknown.”

Nevertheless, no one reads these small-print consent forms in detail since they are eager to get vaccinated. The second half of the above disclaimer is not adhered to by the vast majority of vaccination staff, and most have no clue about it.

Consequently, vaccination teams neither inform recipients of alternative options nor potential risks, benefits, or available alternatives to recipients to make an informed choice.

Contact information: Sunil J. Wimalawansa, MD, PhD, MBA, DSc: suniljw@hotmail.com

 

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Excerpt:

The writer is Professor of Medicine, Endocrinology & Nutrition, Director CardioMetabolic Institute, USA

Escalated hostilities in the Gaza Strip have resulted in heavy casualties and large-scale displacement. More than 50 children have been killed in the current crisis in the Middle East, a senior UN official, said May 15. Credit: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 17 2021 (IPS)

In most civil wars and military conflicts across the politically-volatile Middle East, including in Syria, Yemen and Palestine, the ongoing battles are being fought not on a level playing field but on an uneven killing field.

And it is more so in the current fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, described as a “Middle East carnage” where children are among the civilians killed in airstrikes. The fighting is largely a battle of weapons: sophisticated US-supplied state-of-the-art fighter planes vs home-made rockets and mortars.

The overwhelming Israeli firepower that continues to be unleashed on Palestinians –which has so far killed 192, including 58 children, in a weeklong confrontation — is perhaps reminiscent of the Algerian war of independence (1954-1962) when France, the colonial power, used its vastly superior military strength to strike back at the insurgents with brutal ferocity.

While France was accused of using its air force to napalm civilians in the countryside, the Algerians were accused of using handmade bombs hidden in women’s handbags and left surreptitiously in cafes, restaurants and public places frequented by French nationals living in occupied territory.

In one of the memorable scenes in the 1967 Academy Award winning, cinematic classic “The Battle of Algiers,” which re-created Algeria’s war of independence, a handcuffed leader of the National Liberation Front (NLF), Ben M’Hidi, is brought before a group of highly-partisan French journalists for interrogation.

One of the journalists asks M’Hidi: “Don’t you think it is a bit cowardly to use women’s handbags and baskets to carry explosive devices that kill so many innocent people [in cafes and night clubs?]

Responding with equal bluntness, the Algerian insurgent retorts: “And doesn’t it seem to you even more cowardly to drop napalm bombs on unarmed villages on a thousand times more innocent victims?”

“Of course, if we had your fighter planes, it would be a lot easier for us,” he adds. “Give us your bombers, and you can have our handbags and baskets.”

Perhaps, in the current confrontation, it would be interesting to see the roles reversed: the Palestinians with American fighter planes and battle tanks and Israelis with homemade rockets and mortars,

Besides F-15 and F-16 fighter planes, the Israelis also use a wide array of U.S. weaponry, including Apache helicopters, M60 battle tanks, armoured personnel carriers and heavy artillery.

Israel’s prodigious military strength and its economic stability are attributed largely to unlimited American economic and military assistance from successive US administrations and backed by American politicians.

On May 16 alone, 33 Palestinians were killed, in what was described as “the single deadliest airstrike” by the Israelis. But, as of now, and despite a Security Council meeting, there are no indications of a halt to the killings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying: “We’ll do whatever it takes to restore order and quiet.”

According to a report in the New York Times, Israeli intelligence has estimated that Palestinian militants, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have access to about 30,000 rockets and mortar projectiles stashed in Gaza, most of them manufactured in Gaza with technical expertise from Iran. The rocket attacks have claimed 10 lives so far.

Asked about the massive Israeli military arsenal, Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher, Arms and Military Expenditure Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) told IPS the US, by far, has been the most important arms supplier to Israel since the 1970s.

He pointed out that over the past five years the uninterrupted US supplies included F-35 combat aircraft (described as the most advanced state-of-the art fighter plane), F-15C combat aircraft and many thousands of guided bombs and armoured vehicles.

The purchases of such weapons (and similar weapons before), he said, are funded by the over $3.0 billion in annual military aid the US provides to finance Israeli arms procurement.

In addition, the US also finances and provides technical input into Israel developing missile defence systems, include those that have been used so intensively in the past few days. The US also supplies Israel with a range of other military equipment, ranging from trucks and rifles to spare parts for older US-supplied equipment, Wezeman said.

A Reuters news agency report in September 2016 said the US agreed to provide Israel a staggering $38 billion package in military assistance over the next decade, described as “the largest such aid package in U.S. history, under a landmark agreement signed by the two countries”.

The $38 billion memorandum of understanding (MoU) covered U.S. fiscal years 2019-2028 and replaced the $30 billion MOU signed in 2007, (which expired at the end of fiscal year 2018).

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a Security Council meeting May 16: “The current hostilities are utterly appalling. This latest round of violence only perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair, and pushes farther to the horizon any hopes of coexistence and peace.”

Fighting must stop. It must stop immediately, he urged. Rockets and mortars on one side and aerial and artillery bombardments on the other must stop. “I appeal to all parties to heed this call.” The United Nations, he said, is actively engaging all sides towards an immediate ceasefire.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the 15-member Council “the United States has been working tirelessly through diplomatic channels to try to bring an end to this conflict, because we believe Israelis and Palestinians equally have a right to live in safety and security.”

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who chaired the meeting as Council president for the month of May, said: “We call upon the U.S. to shoulder its responsibilities, take a just position, and together with most of the international community support the Security Council in easing the situation.”

Asked about secondary arms suppliers to Israel, SIPRI’s Wezeman singled out Germany and Italy.

He said Germany has supplied engines for Merkava tanks made in Israel (the engines are really assembled in the US so that Israel can acquire them with US military aid financing) and torpedoes for submarines which Germany has supplied earlier.

One more submarine from Germany is planned for delivery this year while a contract for three more is apparently still being negotiated. Germany is also in the process of delivering four frigates to Israel, which will be equipped with Israeli combat systems.

Italy has supplied eight advanced military trainer aircraft to Israel 2016-2020 (in addition to 22 delivered five years earlier). These are used to prepare and train pilots who will fly the US supplied combat aircraft.

Asked about the state-of-the-art US weapons systems in the Israeli military arsenal, Wezeman said the US supplied combat aircraft, especially F-16s and F-15s, and US guided munitions have played a central role in Israel’s military actions in Gaza and elsewhere (including Syria and Lebanon).

The most advanced weapon the US supplies to Israel is the F-35 combat aircraft, including a few delivered just a few weeks ago. Of the 50 ordered, about 31 have been delivered so far, while more are planned to be ordered.

However, these aircraft are designed for attacking targets deep inside well defended enemy territory, for example, targets deep inside Syria. They may thus not have seen much or any use in the past few days, he said.

Thalif Deen is a former Director, Foreign Military Markets at Defense Marketing Services; Senior Defense Analyst at Forecast International; and military editor Middle East/Africa at Jane’s Information Group. He is the author of a newly-released book on the United Nations titled “No Comment – and Don’t Quote Me on That,” from which this article is adapted. Published by Amazon, the book is peppered with scores of anecdotes– from the serious to the hilarious. The link to Amazon via the author’s website follows: https://www.rodericgrigson.com/no-comment-by-thalif-deen/

 

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