‘We sink or we swim together’

“I'm tired of being behind this virus. We've been behind this virus from day one. We underestimated this virus. It's more powerful, it's more dangerous than we expected.”

—Andrew Cuomo

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WHILE the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency 6 (PDEA-6) has cleared 64 additional Western Visayas villages of illegal drugs through the “barangay drug-clearing deliberation process”, more drug traffickers have been arrested these past weeks and millions of pesos worth of shabu have been seized in Iloilo and Negros in simultaneous raids.

In another news, authorities suspect that a Chinese group has been largely responsible for the continued proliferation of illegal drugs in Western Visayas despite the absence of known local drug lords believed to have been neutralized during the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s all-out war against illegal drugs before the pandemic.  

If this is true, even if most villages in Western Visayas will submit their applications and folders in compliance with the parameters of the Barangay Drug Clearing Program mandated by Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) Regulation No. 3 series of 2017, there is no assurance that trafficking of illegal drugs will be minimized if not stopped.

As long as the alleged Chinese group remains scot-free and continues to clandestinely operate without being detected, the “total war” policy of the Duterte administration against illegal drugs will be useless. 

 

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UNVEILING a plan to have two billion doses of coronavirus vaccine available by the end of 2021, the United Nations (UN) health agency has described coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as “unprecedented global crisis that demands an unprecedented global response.”

UN reported September 21 that roughly 64 per cent of the global population lives in a nation that has either committed to, or is eligible to join, the coronavirus Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, which enables participating Governments to spread the risk and costs of vaccine development and provide their populations with early access to vaccines. 

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization (WHO), said working together through the COVAX Facility “is not charity, it’s in every country’s best interest. We sink or we swim together.”

Speaking at a press briefing with the international vaccine alliance GAVI, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the WHO chief said that commitment agreements have been secured and the COVAX Facility would begin signing contracts with vaccine manufacturers and developers.

 

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The overarching goal of the COVAX Facility is to ensure that all countries have access to vaccines at the same time, and that priority is given to those most at risk, according to the WHO chief.

“The COVAX Facility will help to bring the pandemic under control, “save lives, accelerate the economic recovery and ensure that the race for vaccines is a shared endeavor, not a contest that only the rich can win”, he upheld. “Vaccine nationalism will only perpetuate the disease and prolong the global recovery”.

So far, $3 billion have been invested in the ACT Accelerator – only a tenth of the required $35 for scale-up and impact.

Tedros stressed that $5 billion is needed “immediately to maintain momentum and stay on track for our ambitious timelines”.

“Our challenge now is to take the tremendous promise of the ACT Accelerator and COVAX to scale”, he said, adding, “we are at a critical point and we need a significant increase in countries’ political and financial commitment”. 

The WHO chief cited estimates suggesting that once an effective vaccine has been distributed, and international travel and trade is fully restored, “the economic gains will far outweigh” the $38 billion investment required for the Accelerator.

“This isn’t just the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do”, he spelled out.

“COVAX is now in business,” said Gavi CEO Seth Berkley. “Governments from every continent have chosen to work together, not only to secure vaccines for their own populations, but also to help ensure that vaccines are available to the most vulnerable everywhere”.

“With the commitments we’re announcing today for the COVAX Facility, as well as the historic partnership we are forging with industry, we now stand a far better chance of ending the acute phase of this pandemic, once safe, effective vaccines become available”.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)