An Unprepared World !

Aged care is where this vaccine against the coronavirus is most urgently needed and yet we are finding that as much as twenty percent of residents are refusing the jab because of safety fears.  This is particularly prevalent when the resident comes from another country as a migrant  and still has regular contact with overseas news.

It seems incredible that entire European countries put the vaccine on hold because a mere handful of patients developed blood clots.  It was quickly determined that this was associated with underlying medical conditions which could be expected  and in most cases the embargo was swiftly lifted.

Now we are seeing human nature coming to the fore when it comes to accessing suppliers of the vaccine. The European Union is threatening to ban exports from factories within its borders until sufficient doses have been provided to its own population.

It is becoming evident that much of the third world will be the last in line for supply and the virus will continue unabated until the big and wealthy countries have received sufficient for their needs.  The development of the vaccine was an international effort by the world drug industry but the consent to make the drug under license has been restricted to just a handful of manufacturers.

A medical pandemic came out of nowhere and posed a dire threat to humankind.   It was particularly lethal to the elderly but the fact that it kept continuously  developing new characteristics meant it continued to evolve and could become a mass killer of all age groups.  We can not be assured of safety until the entire population of the planet has been immunised.

Despite this threat, China is still putting obstacles in the way of researching how this pandemic originated. It first appeared in Wuhan province and it is thought to have made the crossing from the animal kingdom to humans by way of " bush meat markets " which sell all manner of native animals for human consumption.   In Africa, this practice is thought to have released Ebola on the world.

Unfortunately, rare diseases lay dormant in animals not traditionally eaten by humans and when they are dissected for sale this sort of accident can happen.  The world population may reach ten billion by 2050 and the desperate search for food in many parts of the world is highly likely to spark new pandemics.  We are told we will have to change our food habits to include insects to stabilize the food supply and that opens the door to similar dangers.

How the world reacted to this coronvirus is not encouraging.  The disease spread by way of international air travel because of a coverup by China who tried to suppress news of the outbreak. The logical command centre to control suppression would have been the United Nations but the giant drug industry acted independently and it has taken almost a year for vaccines to develop.

Pandemics are not a new phenomenon.   The " Black death " scourged Europe centuries ago and killed a huge swath of the population.  What we need to do now is prepare for the next one !