Even A Vaccine Won’t Save You; Why You Should Prepare for the Worst

Since the deadly corona virus struck the Earth, things have not remained the same. Economies are crashing, people are dying, industrialists are suffering, medics are trying, Faiths are failing.

In spite of all of these, it seems like there is no hope. Even if we keep our hopes high, hope is not a grain of sand. And even when the vaccine is ready, we would realize later that vaccine is not just the solution.

Scientific researchers and analysts at the Singaporean University of Technology have predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will end globally early next year. According to them, the world is likely to remain in turmoil till January 5, 2021 when the world finds a vaccine. And if we are really to wait for that, then there is an impending disaster that awaits Third World Countries.

Going by that prediction, if all things are equal, Nigeria is to fight the deadly virus with other countries until then but what even gives us the assurance that that date is certain? And don’t you think that a lot of things would have gone awry, aggravating the self inflicted problem of Nigeria?

Well, following the SIR (susceptible-infected-recovered) model of research, the following are the predictions of developed nations as to when the a vaccine would be created. United States believes that by October 22, 2020, a vaccine should be ready while the United Kingdom: keeps hoping that the same happens September 30, 2020. Italy: October 23, 2020. France: August 25, 2020. Spain: August 15, 2020. Germany: August 20, 2020. India: October 19, 2020. Turkey: September 11, 2020. UAE: September 3, 2020 Saudi Arabia: September 10, 2020. Qatar: September 14, 2020.

In all of these, the sensible question to ask is “When this vaccine is finally created, how does it get to us in Nigeria or any other African country, considering how devastating the country will be by then?” USA has over 500,000 cases with over 80,000 deaths. They fund the World Health Organization more than any country. Considering this fact, who do you think should get access to the vaccine regardless of the country that produces it?

This is a global problem. It will be highly stupid for an African country to think that when a vaccine is ready, every country will get it in equal proportion. It is not possible. So, even at the moment, if a vaccine is invented, the Western World has to first give the citizens. And in doing that, it will take a long, long period of time. African countries will rarely get any.

According to Washington Post, Johnson & Johnson’s race to manufacture a billion doses of coronavirus vaccine is ramping up in a small biotechnology plant near Interstate 95 in Baltimore. But even as technicians prepare to lower 1,000-liter plastic bags of ingredients into steel tanks for brewing the first batches of experimental vaccine, international concern is bubbling about what countries will get the first inoculations.

If SARS-CoV-2 establishes itself as a stubborn, endemic virus akin to influenza, medical experts say, there almost certainly will not be enough vaccine for at least several years, even with the unprecedented effort to manufacture billions of doses. About 70 percent of the world’s population — or 5.6 billion people — will probably need to be inoculated to begin to establish herd immunity and slow its spread, scientists say.

No doubt, Philanthropist Bill and Melinda Gates and some angels in human form have sacrificed their money to find a cure. While this is very commendable, we have to take into cognisance the very fact that finding a vaccine is a case of trial and error. The researchers will work for a long time, trying new things before they finally get a permanent cure. And in trying new things out, we continue to waste one commodity that dictates our future — time.

Time is so factor in combating corona virus. If this virus keeps defeating humans till next year, many people will lose their lives, jobs, families and the likes. Third World economies will crash and the World will be hindered for some time. Start ups will fail, the stock market could crash; crypto currency will too.

In Nigeria, the armed force would have killed more people, hunger will kill many. A war might even break out. This tells us that apart from suffering in the moment, we should look at the future with hope and positivity as a lot of things will happen.

It is certain that there will be a vaccine that will be capable of exterminating the deadly corona virus but what is not certain is the day and time the vaccine will be ready. And if a country, say for instance, the United States of America (USA), produces the vaccine, considering how severe their case is, do you think they would think of other countries? And even if they do, can African countries afford the vaccines?

Consider the time it will take the European and American countries to vaccinate their citizens. This will definitely take a period. Meanwhile, the effect of the deadly virus wouldn’t cease because the vaccines have been created. So what will Africans do? Wait. Africans will wait for foreign aids. Foreign aids, however, sounds neighbourly and good; but it usually hurts the countries that get it, while benefiting the countries that give it. That itself is another form of imperialism perpetuated by the misguided charlatans ruling Africa.

Washington Post reports that “Stronger frameworks for international planning have since been established for influenza vaccines. But those frameworks do not automatically apply to the coronavirus.” This is why David Fidler, adjunct senior fellow for cybersecurity and global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and a visiting professor at the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said the much larger threat of the coronavirus could make it more difficult for countries to act together — and especially difficult for the United States, which has experienced the highest coronavirus caseload and death toll in the world.

Data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that more than 80 million Americans were inoculated in the 2009 swine-flu pandemic — an amount that roughly equals the total number of doses that were received in 77 countries under a distribution plan organized by the World Health Organization.

“Rich countries monopolized the vaccine, poor countries were left behind,” Gavin Yamey, director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health at Duke University, said in a university podcast. “They got the vaccine later, and they got less of it.” Allowing a repeat scenario in the battle against the coronavirus would be a devastating mistake, he said.

“Unless we make this vaccine globally available,” he said, “we are not going to be able to end the pandemic, because … an outbreak anywhere is an outbreak everywhere.”

In a nutshell, either way it goes, Africa will suffer; our only hope lies in the quickness of the vaccine getting to us.

Post written and edited by:

Emmanuel Uti Follow us on Instagram @sofovilla | Follow us on Twitter @sofovilla | Like our page on Facebook via @sofovillamedia