COVID-19 is menacing the whole of humanity – and so the whole of humanity must fight back. Individual country responses are not going to be enough.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on 25th March, 2020 in New York, United States

Mr. Guterres that day, launched a $2 billion coordinated global humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19 in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries in a bid to protect millions of people and stop the virus from circling back around the globe. Well, we all know how that turned out. Till that day when the UN Secretary-General rolled out this plan, there had been 16,000 deaths and about 400,000 cases reported across the world. Fast forward fourteen months later, the world is staring at a unprecedented death toll in excess of 3.5 million people and upward of 170 million cases.

What went wrong? I mean all the modern world’s scientific and medical fraternity and we never seemed to get a hold on the rising curve of cases, whether the first or second wave. Humanity was left to their fate to deal with country-specific or region-specific challenges in order to overcome this pandemic. Yes, there definitely has been help sought and arranged by UN, and WHO, individual governments, defense forces, acclaimed NGOs, momentarily-sprung task forces, citizen associations, healthcare workers, frontline staff and many more. Thousands, no sorry, millions of people actually have stepped up either duty-bound or out of conscience to help fellow humans as much as possible in this time of global crisis. And I kept scratching my head to figure out the Why, but only when the world rejoiced was I able to understand it all.

The Vaccine or immunization program was successfully ready with necessary approvals by WHO and individual country regulators by the end of 2020. There was Hope again! But wait, it wasn’t The Vaccine. There were many, actually. About 4 to 5 types of vaccines with different types of technologies, were ready for approval while there were many more immunization methods under research, trials and approval stages –> the whole Pipeline was packed. Wow! Humanity was looking for one solution from the experts and they were flooded with multiple options, interestingly, at different price points! Whatever happened to “coordinated global humanitarian response plan”.

The pandemic was always deemed to be a boon for the Big Pharma, and other multinational corporations and governments, as it always has been throughout history. With 2 doses of each vaccine and yearly boosters lined up for the next few years across the entire human population, we are looking at a massive business opportunity. Neither the UN or WHO or sovereign governments are going to regulate this vaccine business, instead they will collaborate, market and ensure sufficient returns are ensured for all stakeholders. But what is my problem anyways, as long as I am getting immune and can go on with my life like before? There is only one problem my friend. This time you were lucky, are you sure about crossing over to the safe zone, Next Time?