Covid-19 And The Explosive Pfizer Documents
A time of fear and panic Coronaviruses are a group of related viruses which cause disease in mammals and birds. The SARS-CoV-2 virus manifests as Covid-19 disease in humans.…
COVID Vaccine
G20 urged to “face up” to global Covid-19 challenges, as rich countries still monopolise vaccine supply
Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia: Wednesday 16/11 : Rich countries have delivered seven times more doses of COVID-19 vaccine per head than low-income countries[1], civil society groups have warned, as the G20…
Is Gandhi’s Talisman the guiding light to end vaccine inequity?
by Shobha Shukla & Bobby Ramakant In a world with over 7 billion people, more than 10 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered by the end of January 2022.…
Save Lives, Socialize Big Pharma
In April 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an annual report, perhaps overlooked in the midst of the raging COVID pandemic, again warning that little recent progress has been…
Booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine: To give or not to give?
by Shobha Shukla & Bobby Ramakant With almost 19 million new COVID-19 cases reported, the third week of January 2022 recorded the highest-ever weekly number of new infections so far…
A Flawed Program – Millions Of Expiring Covid Vaccine Doses: Poorer Nations Reject
The short expiration dates of vaccines donated to the sharing program is a major problem, Etleva Kadilli, an official concerned with the issue told the European Parliament (EP) on Thursday.…
The Mauling of Novak Djokovic
Rarely can the treatment of a grand sporting figure by officialdom have caused such consternation. Novak Djokovic, the tennis World Number One, has always had a tendency to get under…
Punishing the Unvaccinated: Europe’s COVID-19 Health Experiment
Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. …
Germany Too Has the Plight of the Unvaccinated
As Germany has just reached the 100,000 Corona death mark, the debate on mandatory vaccination is heating up in the country. As a matter of fact, Germany has had ample…
Vaccine Hesitancy or Resistance?
Ever since COVID-19 pandemic appeared, the year 2020 saw advocates of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) vending it as a preventive and later curative medicine for Coronavirus infection. The Indian Government ‘gifted’ HCQ…
Elitism is Not the Answer to Populism: On ‘Anti-Vaxxers’ and Mistrust in Government
While “anti-vaxxers” continue to clash with police in various European cities, a whole media discourse has been formulated around the political leanings of these angry crowds, describing them in matter-of-fact…
Who Resists Corona Vaccination in Germany?
by Thomas Klikauer and Norman Simms In 2021, Germany’s population is about 84 million. A total of 73.9 million people in Germany could be vaccinated and a Covid-19 vaccine is…
German Vaccination Hesitancy: a Union View
by Thomas Klikauer & Meg Young By early November 2021, Germany’s Corona infection numbers reached new highs. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) registered 40,000 new infections within 24 hours, the 7-day average…
Breakthrough Infections, Hospitalisations and Death during the Covid Vaccination Drive in Kerala
Abstract Kerala, the South-Western State in India with a population of 35 million was in the global limelight for successfully flattening the covid curve and for the lower case-fatality ratio…
Who are Germany’s Anti-Vaxxers?
by Thomas Klikauer and Meg Young Germany’s anti-vaxxers are people who refuse to be vaccinated against, for example, the Corona virus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and others,…
Covid-19 vaccine distribution is a global disaster
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid over a gaping hole,” said Andrea Taylor of Duke University, discussing the rich countries of North America and Europe giving their own citizens Covid-19 vaccine…
Will India’s One billion vaccination-dose-milestone be catalytic for vaccinating all?
On 21 October 2021, India crossed its milestone of administering over 1 billion (100 crores) doses within 278 days since it began the vaccination rollout (on 16th January 2021). The…
Pope Francis Urges Pharma Giants to Release Covid-19 Vaccine Patents
Amid ongoing outrage over global vaccine inequity, Pope Francis on Saturday urged pharmaceutical companies to "make a gesture of humanity" by lifting intellectual property protections and sharing Covid-19 vaccine technology with the…
Covid-19 vaccine distribution is a global disaster
“It’s like putting a Band-Aid over a gaping hole,” said Andrea Taylor of Duke University, discussing the rich countries of North America and Europe giving their own citizens Covid-19 vaccine…
UK’s decision to consider vaccinated Indians as ‘unvaccinated’ stinks of apartheid, lacks scientific merit
Recent decision of the United Kingdom (UK) to consider fully vaccinated Indians along with some other nationalities as 'unvaccinated' lacks scientific merit and instead stinks of white supremacy and apartheid…
Step up the pace globally if universal vaccination could lead us out of the pandemic
The Covid pandemic has hard drilled the lesson why health and social security of each one of us is inter-dependent on health and social security of one another. But do…
Between Vaccine and the Ventilator
“I am planning to get my Covid vaccine shot this week” I told a very dear German friend of mine the other day over the phone. “No! Don’t do that!”…
Vaccine Blues
There are several reports in the press here in Assam that in several rural regions people queuing up from daybreak for the jab were told that the vaccine stock was…
Reflections from the ground: Digital divide and Covid-19 in Uttarakhand
As the country recuperates from the devastating second wave of Covid-19, vaccination has become the only and the most effective possibility to beat the virus. But getting vaccinated isn’t as…
Making Vaccines Mandatory – An Ethical Perspective
On June 28, the Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra said that only those who have received two doses of vaccines will be permitted entry into theatres, multiplexes, coaching centres,…
Abdala, with three doses, has 92.28% efficacy in fighting COVID-19
Written by Leticia Martínez and René Tamayo León A three-dose regimen of Cuba’s Abdala candidate vaccine has demonstrated an efficacy of 92.28 percent, placing it well above the World Health…
Vaccine Equity and G7 Summit: Solidarity Not Charity, Justice Not Denial of Human Rights
Vaccine equity is not working because besides the role played by the fascists and the authoritarian regimes in denying vaccine access to their population, also, it is behind the cloak…
Vaccine Failings: The European Commission and AstraZeneca
In the messy, underhanded world of global health responses to COVID-19 it was only appropriate that lawyers should find themselves enriched on respective sides of a dispute about vaccine supply. …
Vaccine Nationalism
Fifteen months ago, the SARS-CoV-2 virus unleashed Covid-19. Since then, it’s killed more than 3.8 million people worldwide (and possibly many more). Finally, a return to normalcy seems likely for a…
Vaccine Woes Worry India
Written by Ashish Kumar Singh & Wakar Amin India consists of a population with different sets of profiles of socio-culturally diverse identities scattered within it. Any vaccination program which is…
Less Freedom, More Money: Tony Blair’s Vaccine Passport
Sincere Tony is again on the stump, promoting his vision of how best to return to a lovely, unruffled world of capitalist endeavour, circuit lecturing and summit meetings that no…
A People’s Vaccine Against a Mutating Virus and Neoliberal Rule
A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that worries about the COVID pandemic in the United States are at their lowest level since it began. Only half of Americans are either…
Millions of Asians urgently need developed countries to stop blocking their access to vaccines
Across Asia, a surge in coronavirus cases is prompting fresh restrictions and pushing people further into poverty. While fast-moving vaccination drives are allowing developed economies to bounce back, most Asian…
India’s ‘Westernism’ is its Undoing in Vaccine Strategy
Sputnik V has already been soft launched in India on May 14 as part of a pilot study with a top official of Dr Reddy’s Laboratories receiving the first jab…
Private hospitals fleecing the people by overcharging for vaccines
To Shri Rajiv Gauba Cabinet Secretary Govt of India Dear Shri Gauba, The Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy 21-4-2021 (PANCVS) notified by the Union Health Ministry has…
They fear vaccines more than Covid
Pune, Maharashtra:“People are not ready to go to the local government hospital to get treated for Corona. They think that from there the doctor will send them to the district…
COVID19: Dwindling Supply of Vaccines and Rising Cost
Click on the image for a larger version Graphic artist: Madhushree Data: B.Sivaraman GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX
Puzzling costs of COVID-19 vaccines in India
Written by Dr Saru Gupta and Dr Leenus Tafline A ferocious second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on cities and towns of India, bringing the country's crippled…
Andhra CM asks PM Modi to halt Covid-19 vaccine supply to pvt hospitals; it is “socially unacceptable”
Taking a critical view of the Centre's present Covid-19 vaccination policy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on May 22 Saturday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to…
Swedish doctors recommend against vaccination of young, healthy
Over 85 per cent of those who died of Covid-19 had some other underlying health condition and were very old. The risk from the virus to the young and healthy…
Cooperative Federalism to “Competitive” Cooperative Federalism, The case of Covid vaccination – Who gains? Who loses?
“However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it, happen to be a bad lot. However bad a…
A Brief History of India’s Vaccination Drive, rather the Lack of it!
From the beginning of the COVID time it was apparent, that the only sustainable check would be vaccine induced protection. Unfortunately the GOI bungled big time, as demonstrated in the…
Whether all Indians will get vaccinated? When?
There is a very wide supply-demand gap, from a market perspective… Even if we secure necessary stocks of vaccine in near future, its cost and affordability will be real challenges. …
Covid Today, Vaccines Tomorrow
Written by Harshavardhan Purandare and Sandeep Pandey India has been advertised as ‘the country with a great future’ ever since we globalised in the ‘90s, but now this narrative of…
Profit First: COVID vaccines create 9 billionaires with combined wealth greater than cost of vaccinating poorest countries
At least nine persons have become new billionaires since the beginning of the COVID pandemic, thanks to the excessive profits pharmaceutical corporations with monopolies on COVID vaccines are making, said…
China on the horizon as ‘world’s pharmacy’
Jospeh Stiglitz, the Nobel laureate, in an essay last week , with a startling title Will Corporate Greed Prolong the Pandemic? , wrote: “…Their goal is simple: to maintain as much…
Crowded Vaccination Centers And Overcrowding At Curfew Relaxation Hours
Turbulent times- that’s where we are living in! It almost feels like a flight leading to neverland that has been in turbulence since December 2019 and all of us are…
Political Economy Of Modi Government’s Vaccination Policy
Modi on April 19 announced "liberalised vaccine pricing” policy. "Private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price.” This is part-2 of a two-part article, dealing with Politics And…
Need For Invocation Of Emergency Powers Under The Patents Act
Vaccination is the only solution to mitigate the ferocity of Covid-19. If we continue the present pace of vaccination, experts say that it would take many years to administer…
Covid-19 Vaccines: Politics And Economics Of The IPR Waiver Ploy
US announcement to discuss IPR relaxation came as Modi regime, a QUAD ally, was gasping for political breath after election setbacks, and an oxygen crisis in India. In a sudden…
Big Pharma Greed Will Prolong Pandemic—If We Don’t Fight Back
Written by Joseph Stiglitz and Lori Wallach The Covid-19 vaccines have been developed by scientists from all over the world, thanks to basic science supported by numerous governments. We must…
People’s Vaccine Alliance lauds US decision to break open Covid-19 monopolies and urges others to follow
The United States government last night moved to support a waiver of intellectual property protections of the Covid-19 vaccine. The People’s Vaccine Alliance has been campaigning to suspend Covid-19 intellectual…
Going to Court: The EU Sues AstraZeneca
It has been a relationship of characterised by bitterness and misunderstanding. It began with a poorly negotiated agreement – poor, that is, from the European Union perspective – between Brussels…
‘Art for Awareness’: Media Students’ Campaign’ to support the #VaccineChallenge
The students and staff of Chetana College of Media and Performing Arts, Thrissur, have come up with an innovative way to extend their support to the # VaccineChallenge campaign, part…
Quid Pro Quo System
Written by Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant, Sandeep Pandey Narendra Modi once said he is a Gujarati and understands business. As time passes his business model is getting exposed and he…
Peoples’ Vaccine, Not For-Profit Vaccine!
Urgent call to three rich Asian country governments – Japan, South Korea and Singapore to stop opposing TRIPS waiver at WTO Press Release by people’s Vaccine Alliance, Asia Chapter …
Lift USA embargo on the export of Vaccine raw materials
Nation is currently reeling through a serious COVID pandemic. Daily reported cases are touching nearly 3.0 lakhs with mounting deaths in many states. Unless 30 crore population is vaccinated by…
Nimble Failure: The Australian COVID-19 Vaccination Program
“I am not going to be talking about numbers today,” Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told Australia’s Radio National on April 12. This echoed suggestions from the Australian Prime…
Amidst shortages in India unplanned Vaccine Plan stumbles
The second wave of COVID-19 pandemic situation across the country is becoming alarming. With nearly 1.52 lakh new cases being reported daily (as on 10th April) and the mounting death…
COVID-19 Vaccines, Access and the Intellectual Property Wars
By now, anybody speaking about vaccine equality and equity of access must surely be coming across as slightly deranged. In the field of COVID-19, traditional proprietorial instincts remain. Add to…
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