{"id":15752,"date":"2021-01-29T23:32:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T23:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmatilda.com\/?p=139934"},"modified":"2021-01-29T23:32:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T23:32:06","slug":"let-them-eat-cake-and-catch-covid-argues-labors-katy-gallagher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/29\/let-them-eat-cake-and-catch-covid-argues-labors-katy-gallagher\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Them Eat Cake\u2026 And Catch COVID, Argues Labor\u2019s Katy Gallagher"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DON’T MISS ANYTHING! ONE CLICK TO GET NEW MATILDA DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX, FREE!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tackling the global pandemic through vaccine equity is in everybody\u2019s interest… except maybe people living in rich countries, and Labor Senators. Geoff Russell explains. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The face of selfish rich world entitlement was front and centre\nin TV news reports on Thursday. In Australia, Senator Katy Gallagher was attacking\nChief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy during the Senate Enquiry into COVID-19 about\nour vaccine rollout: \u201cWe\u2019re not at the front of the queue, are we?\u201d she complained<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well no, Australia isn\u2019t at the front of the queue. And we also don\u2019t have thousands of people dying each day, and a hospital system in crisis. Ms Gallagher might protest that she was actually trying to attack Scott Morrison, but it was pretty bloody clear she thought Australia should be given special priority over other nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We bloody well should not<\/em> be at the front of the queue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO\u2019s recent plea(s), more than one, for vaccine equity, seems\nto have bypassed Ms Gallagher, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the EU, we have Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides playing hard ball<\/a> over doses of vaccine she claims should be delivered to the EU from manufacturing plants in the UK. Well yes, people are dying at high rates in various countries in the EU, but not at quite the rate of the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It might be reasonable to blame the UK deaths on appalling\nmanagement by Boris Johnson, but should those dying in the UK be paying for his\nscrew ups? Since when is electing a clown a capital offence? Okay\u2026 maybe it should\nbe punishable by something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November Nature<\/em>, the scientific journal, published\na table of which countries<\/a> had pre-ordered the\nmost vaccine doses. The top 5 on that table were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Canada\n– 8 doses per person<\/li>
  2. UK\n– 4 doses per person<\/li>
  3. Australia\n– 4 doses per person<\/li>
  4. US\n– 3 doses per person<\/li>
  5. EU\n– 3 doses per person<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Japan was the only other country with more than 2 doses per\nperson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    COVAX, the WHO initiative to provide vaccines for most of\nthe planet had a tiny bar on the Nature chart. As of writing (Jan 29) COVAX\u2019s 1.3\nbillion doses are almost all in the form of non-binding agreements<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    It should be obvious to everybody that global vaccine equity\nis in everybody\u2019s interest. If only the rich world is vaccinated, then the virus\nwill continue to circulate and mutate across the other 6 billion or so people on\nthe planet. Containment will be impossible without permanent strict closure of international\nborders for as long as it takes for the virus to lose its kick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There is a tendency for new viral strains to outcompete the\ninitial strain by being more contagious and not killing their host quite so soon,\nor not at all. But that\u2019s a tendency, not something that happens with each and every\nvariant. So it doesn\u2019t preclude more<\/em> dangerous mutations from arising frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A team of Turkish scientists recently costed the impacts<\/a> on the global\neconomy of rich selfishness; namely having rich countries fully vaccinated and poor\ncountries left out. The cost to the global economy was some $9 trillion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Supply lines for many goods are heavily globalised with poorer\ncountries featuring prominently. We really do live in a highly connected planet\nand the cost of more self-sufficiency will be high; and it will hurt both sides\nof any trading connection. That said, many countries will already be looking to\nreduce reliance on overseas partners for some critical goods. But a failure of international\nvaccine equity will drive that trend far beyond what is sensible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It\u2019s hard to know who is more dangerous – the anti-lock downers, the anti-vaxxers, or the globally ascendant representatives of the me<\/em> generation with all their \u2018i\u2019 and \u2018my\u2019 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    DON’T MISS ANYTHING! ONE CLICK TO GET NEW MATILDA DELIVERED DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX, FREE!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    The post Let Them Eat Cake\u2026 And Catch COVID, Argues Labor\u2019s Katy Gallagher<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

    This post was originally published on New Matilda<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Tackling the global pandemic through vaccine equity is in everybody\u2019s interest\u2026 except maybe people living in rich countries, and Labor Senators. Geoff Russell explains. The face of selfish rich world entitlement was front and centre in TV news reports on Thursday. In Australia, Senator Katy Gallagher was attacking Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy during the […]<\/p>\n

    The post Let Them Eat Cake\u2026 And Catch COVID, Argues Labor\u2019s Katy Gallagher<\/a> appeared first on New Matilda<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":634,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1730,1963],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15752"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15752"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70718,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15752\/revisions\/70718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}