THIS VACCINE OF YOURS....

At the beginning of this whole pandemic; and I mean the Covid-19 pandemic, I was under the impression that perhaps the world was coming to an end. This was the only logical explanation for the tragedy that the year 2020 had brought along with it. It had never occurred to me that anything could be worse than a global health crisis. A few days ago, I grasped that there’re much worse pandemics that have been going on in the world for many years.

Recently, a viral video shed light on one pandemic that has been terrorizing “black” people and other people of varying ethnic backgrounds all over the world for centuries; racism. George Floyd has become a household name for all the wrong reasons; he was a black man murdered by a white police officer all in the name of carrying out an “arrest”; and yes, it is vital that I note the color of both the oppressor’s and the victim’s skin color. Many have described racism as a new pandemic of its own but I do beg to differ because there is nothing new about racism. So here we are finding ourselves double crossed by two tragedies and yet there’s more.

In addition to covid-19, racism and police brutality, 2020 has brought along with it a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. Ironically, most of these pandemics have been existence for years with little or no attention paid to them at all. In a span of five years, seventeen thousand five hundred civilians in Yemen have been killed by air raids and millions of women and children continue to die of famine and violence in the same country. It is estimated by the United Nations that Yemen might not live to see the next decade. In simple terms, the Republic of Yemen is about to go extinct and soon all of its people will join the dinosaurs in our children’s books filled with creatures of the past that no longer exist.

This shit storm seems to have no end though, and you’ll pardon my informality but there’s no other way I could best describe the shock I received when I read of this other pandemic in China. For many years, Muslims in China have been marginalized, segregated and tortured, this pandemic made it to the news this year as well. One news story really hit a nerve; according to Chris Baynes a British journalist, various Muslim women concentrated in Muslim camps are forced to share beds with Chinese officials as their husbands are forced to eat pork and drink alcohol.

Don’t get me started on the police brutality that has sky rocketed over this covid-19 period in Western and Eastern Africa. Many precautionary policies have been put in place globally such as social distancing policies and nationwide curfews. In some parts of Africa there has been a huge disconnect between the civilians and law enforcers; this has resulted into various shootings and deaths of men and women over this period. Covid-19 is not killing the people, instead; it’s the police.

What is interesting is that a vaccine is being created to cure only one of these pandemics. According to the BBC News, a new Covid-19 vaccine is expected to be released mid-2021 and as a matter of fact potential vaccine trials are already being tested on ferrets in Australia. WOHOO! I do applaud and appreciate all effort put into finding a preventive measure for Covid-19 however my eyes cannot ignore the double standards we are portraying in the world.

How come there is little concern about the progress on the invention of a vaccine for racism, Islamophobia, famine and injustice? Keeping in mind that these four pandemics were in existence long before covid-19 was invented – I mean; magically transmitted from one province to the entire world.

So to the scientists, politicians and policy makers all over the globe, I don’t mean to hinder any progress you are making but I do suggest that you reconsider your formula and develop a five in one vaccine that prevents the spread of Covid-19, Racism, Islamophobia, Famine and Injustice.