Quite an eventful week for me after a long period of non-event days on a personal front while covid again reared its ugly head.
Just when we thought that Covid recovery is rounding the corner for everyone, the sudden and vicious flare-ups around developing countries like India and Brazil took the world by surprise. Multiple videos of people scrambling to get their loved ones into hospitals and depleting oxygen supplies was a wake-up call that all is not over. In fact, all is not well at all when we see pictures of numerous impromptu funeral pyres being set up as crematoriums were overwhelmed. It really looked like a scene from a Hollywood apocalypse movie.
The fact that a simple commodity like oxygen was lacking should scare anyone. It is not even a medicine but a basic necessity to survive. India is one of the biggest manufacturers of the Covid vaccines but yet this had happened. What went terribly wrong? Wrong moves by Modi and commercial greed? The Bloomberg article below tries to figure this out:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-29/how-india-s-vaccine-drive-crumbled-and-left-a-country-in-chaos?sref=TCJIUe33
The other acute fault line that the virus had exposed: countries scrambling to protect their citizens rather than assisting others. That became apparent with the orange one’s America First strategy over the last 4 years. Unfortunately, Biden had to continue it as a virus strategy to keep the raw materials for the vaccine production for itself until all its citizens have access to the vaccines first.
India’s vaccine production capabilities were severely crippled once it could not obtain the supplies needed to continue producing the billions of doses required. Biden has now decided to release 60 million of the Astra Zeneca vaccine to India. The irony of it was that it had not been approved for use in the US yet, as America started stockpiling and hoarding all the vaccines for its citizens. Hence the stockpile had been languishing in warehouses at the moment. Biden has also now agreed to allow vaccine raw materials to be exported to the manufacturers in India. But the damage has been done as the ramp-up in production now means that new vaccines can only be ready for use in July.
It was mentioned earlier in the year that India intends to keep 50% of the vaccine production for its citizens. By the political will seemed to have been lost very quickly. The overconfidence of being able to battle the first wave had caused them to let down their guards with disastrous effect now. It had hit new world records of more than 300k cases daily for many days now.
The widening divide between the have and have-not countries, the developed and developing ones, are getting bigger by the day. Countries that planned in advance to stock up for the vaccines like S’pore and stronger ones like the US that can exercise their might to channel resources seems to be winning at the moment.
But yet for S’pore, a recent flare-up of cases has been a worrying concern in the last 48 hours. We are discovering a few new clusters in a hospital and other locations. In the last 2 weeks, there were about 45 new confirmed positives. Some can be attributed to people with old infections who are still shedding the virus. Others who were already vaccinated with the 2 shots of Pfizer or Moderna were also in this group.
While we were told that those who had the vaccine were less likely to have life-threatening issues if they contracted Covid, we are not sure if they do have the ability to pass it on to others and become contagious. The authorities are frantically widening the net to quarantine as many of the people who have come in contact with the positives cases. More countries are being put into the banned from travelling or having a stopover in S’pore.
This is a dynamic evolving situation and authorities will need to nail down the spread and identify who is patient number one. I worry that if it is someone who has had the vaccine and yet can spread the virus, then it will be a game-changer, back to square one again. New mutant variants are also a big worry. Let’s hope that it will not result in a lockdown again.
On the personal front this week, the positives first. I finally had my second Pfizer vaccine shot on Thurs. It went better than the first one with some soreness and tiredness that lasted for a shorter period of time.
I finally met my IBM AI classmates after 2 months of virtual online Zoom classes at our first in-person exam. I went for lunch with a number of them after that. Meeting people face to face is so different from looking at the screen. Our perceptions and assumptions can be so wrong when we meet the actual person in real life.
From tomorrow, my family will be going on a 3 nights cruise to nowhere. It will be a vacation of sorts in these Covid times. It has become so popular here that S’pore now accounts for almost one-third of all cruise travellers in the world! A friend liked it so much that he has already done 3 such trips. Prices are low and reasonable with social distancing protocols being strictly observed – only 50% of capacity allowed. It will be an interesting family bonding session for us in a controlled environment.
I finally completed my excruciating traffic accident court case. It has been dragging on since Jul and I can finally settle it and stop driving for a while. While I still feel that the penalty is a bit too severe, I will just take it and move on.
My biggest negative news of the week was on Myanmar. The CEO of the microfinance firm I was providing consultancy to for the last 3 years had suddenly decided to quit. I guess the pressure of Covid and then the coup 3 months ago, plus working overseas from Yangon and being a new father had overwhelmed him.
To see a country going down the tubes so fast is really a heartbreaking emotional rollercoaster for me. There seems to be no end in sight even after the recent Asean overture to try to bring all parties to the negotiating table. It is sad that after 11 years of opening up and slowly lifting the poverty line for many to get a better life could be reversed so abruptly.
I feel so helpless as an outsider looking in. I cannot imagine how it would feel like for my fellow local colleagues there. So many things have become beyond their control. The banking system has shut down, day to day activities and supply chains have collapsed. Even the simple act of trying to draw money from an ATM machine is limited now. Internet services and broadband are also restricted every night.
Things seem to be going back to Myanmar’s previous 50 years of isolationistic darkness again. I fear for the country and what it will become. My heart bleeds for the citizens whose destiny is being controlled by the few in power who are crushing the will of the citizens.
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