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Why Rush To Buy Vaccines In The Global South? Covid-19 Is Mainly A First World Virus
Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake
In recent weeks, global media and news channels like Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN and India’s NDTV have been marketing vaccines to the world with images of Prime Ministers, Vice President elects, and a Crown Prince in the Middle East taking a jab live on television– seemingly to encourage Covid-19 vaccine skeptics.
Highly advertised vaccines are being produced and rolled out at ‘warped speed’ by powerful pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies headquartered in Euro-America although their efficacy for the new British and South African variants of the virus, or how long their immunity lasts is not clear. These vaccines have been authorized for ‘emergency use ‘in Europe and North America due to the spike in Covid-19 winter flu cases in the northern hemisphere.
Cool, Mountainous, and Very Civilized: Nuwara Eliya
I’m waiting to catch sight of a lunar eclipse on this clear, starry night, and I’m shivering in my fleece jacket. I almost didn’t bring it along. I just left the steamy, tropical weather of Galle, on Sri Lanka’s beautiful southwest coast, six hours ago but that’s OK inside my pretty mountain guesthouse there’s fragrant cinnamon wood in the fireplace, a steaming cup of hot tea, and homemade strawberry tarts waiting for me.
Nuwara Eliya (pronounced Noora-elya) is a small enough town that there’s little light pollution, and the scenery is nothing less than spectacular. At 6,129 feet in elevation, the temperatures are always cool and the air is clean. Year-round temperatures rarely exceed 75 F, dipping into the 50s F at night. Mornings are often foggy, and rain can occur any time of the year.
Dr. Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake is a Social and Medical Anthropologist, at the International Center for Ethnic Studies, based in Colombo. Sri Lanka.
A lockdown closer home. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres walking the empty corridors of the UN Secretariat building in New York in 2020. Credit: United Nations
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Jan 7 2021 (IPS) - The currently available Covid-19 vaccines have been authorized for ‘emergency use ‘in Europe and North America. This is due to an apparent spike in Covid-19 flu cases in the northern hemisphere as winter advances. Highly advertised vaccines are being produced and rolled out at ‘warped speed’ by powerful pharmaceutical and bio-technology companies headquartered in Euro-America although their efficacy including how long their immunity lasts is not clear.