A few months ago, the whole world was anxiously awaiting the production of effective vaccines against COVID-19, but now that they are already in circulation, we are witnessing an appalling image of human greed.
A few months ago, the whole world was anxiously awaiting the production of effective vaccines against COVID-19, but now that they are already in circulation, we are witnessing the appalling image of human greed.
The richest countries are hoarding and even hiding these vaccines, forgetting about the fate of the rest of the world -- living in low and middle income regions, or even those with no income at all.
A few days ago, the Director General of the World Health Organization, WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, said that the inequality concerning the vaccine administration in the most developed and the least favored countries is increasing and is extremely alarming.
He added that the inequitable distribution of vaccines is not only a moral outrage, but also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating.
Another degrading scandal recently emerged when 29 million doses of the vaccines against the new coronavirus, produced by the AstraZeneca laboratories and the University of Oxford, were discovered in a warehouse in Italy.
Neither the Italian government nor the European Union authorities knew about the large number of vials piled up and hidden, then speculations as to who was responsible and what was the purpose of this action were released.
There is a marked conflict between London and Brussels due to delays in the delivery of AstraZeneca products to the EU bloc, while the UK is regularly being supplied.
According to the European Commissioner for Internal Trade, Thierry Bretton, the discovered batch will remain in this integration mechanism, except for a small part that will go to the COVAX system organized by the WHO to provide assistance to countries with difficulties in purchasing vaccines.
In our region, where Cuba is the only nation that develops its own vaccines, we are experiencing the diversion of doses for public officials, their relatives and friends.
This is a clear abuse of power to the detriment of health personnel, or people with vulnerabilities and high risk to COVID-19.
There is no time to expose it in full, but, when you have it at hand, just read the poem of Nicaraguan writer Rubén Darío, entitled "Los motivos del lobo." Perhaps you will find in its metaphor a lesson about what is happening to us these days.
