Omicron

Just to say that yesterday, the 26th of November, while the news about the big concern (as mentioned by the WHO) of the South African variant and its multiple mutations was spreading across the world, the stocks of one of the biggest biotechnological company, Moderna Inc, were rising by more than 20% .

In this context, the Botswana government has just officialy said that the new COVID variant, named Omicron, was first detected in four patients who were fully vaccinated for COVID.

From the Nuremberg trial (1945) Hermann Goering to the question "How did you convince the German people to accept all this?", he replied: "It was easy and has nothing to do with Nazism. The only thing a government needs to turn people into slaves is fear. If you can find something to scare them, you can make them do anything you want".

Pharma companies' abusive vaccine deals

The world's largest pharmaceutical company, which is in talk with about 100 countries around the world, will be delivering 2 billion vaccine doses this year. But a lot of people don't know that the company ask some countries in South America to create a guarantee found. 

When the Covid-19 epidemic began to spread across the Northern hemisphere in early 2020, the CEO of the world's largest pharma company hypocritically said: "We believe that every person deserves to be seen, heard and cared for. That's why from the very beginning our vaccine development program, our company has been firmly committed to working towards equitable and affordable access of Covid-19 vaccines for people around the world".

According to the pharma companies' deals, Brazil and other countries have to take in consideration delay in vaccine delivery. It means that the Brazilian government can not penalise pharmaceutical companies for delayed delivery. 

In addition to this, manufacturer of pharmaceuticals will be exempted from all civil liability. The company also wants sovereign assets as guarantee, such as military bases, embassy buildings and sovereign founds. In other words, a vaccine maker asks for a country's military basis in return of vaccines.

While EU, Chinese and Indian pharmaceutical companies are selling free vaccines to poorer countries, there are big vaccine makers which are bullying countries. Not to mention of someone who refuses to sell vaccine raw materials and says no to sharing vaccine formulas to developing countries.

Meanwhile, while Covid-19 cases were increasing in the EU, Austria's government announced strict lockdown measures. There are fears other EU countries might do the same. It's easy to see that current vaccines may not be the ideal match for new variants, although pharmaceutical and biotech stocks have been rising on the markets.

Blunting the edge of fiscal paradises

Two weeks ago leaders of world's 20 richest countries gathered for summit in Rome with the aim of adopting corporate tax rules. The agreement is aimed at "blunting the edge of fiscal paradises". As it is known, multinational companies make money in one country and move their profits to another.

In this contexts, about 14 countries representing more than 90% of global economic output endorsed the agreement which aims to raise more revenue for most governments and offer stability to international businesses. Consequently, profits of big companies will face tax at least 15% under pact approved at the 2021 Rome's G20 summit.  In addition to this, companies have to be taxed in territories where they sell their products and services, rather than where they are headquartered. But four countries (Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and Kenia) rejected the deal, as they said it will not be sustainable. 

I hope the agreement will be useful to end decades of competition between countries to attract foreign investments.

The 1st picture above shows the neighborhood of Rome where the G20 summit was held in late October. The tall white building in the picture, which was designed in 1938, is an example of the Italian Rationalism (someone would like to call it as fascist architecture). The style resembles that of the ancient Rome. This neighborhood is a business district, nowadays. And the building is known in everyday speech as "Swiss cheese" or "Square Colosseum".

Italian Constitution: fundamental principles don't exist any more

From the 15th of October we (Italians) can no longer work without a vaccine passport. The fundamental human right to work stripped away. Silence from our government, silence from all governments and silence from Amnesty. 

With regards to my previous post, this is the comment sent from an anonymous blogger:

"I think some of you are delusional. Clearly the covid certificate is a nazy style papers please kind of fascist ideology".

Constitutional clashes on the EU's green pass

Everything surronding Covid-19 has become politicized since many EU countries use the Digital Covid Certificate to grant or deny access to nightlife venues, restaurants, cafees, and other public spaces.  The vaccine passport has become a condition for every day life also in Italy, although most Italian people are still observing social distancing rules perfectly. Italian people are also wearing masks everywhere.

According to many researches, people who have been vaccinated or previously infected with the Covid-19 are able to catch and spread the virus. That's the main reason why last month Spain's Supreme Court ruled against using vaccine passport to restrict access to public spaces. It's the first judicial authority to do so in Europe, as using vaccine passport to prevent access to public spaces may not be useful to prevent the spreading of the infection. In this perspective, it seems that Italian policy makers still pretend to misunderstand the EU principles of effectiveness, necessity and proportionality.  

In many EU countries people who haven't a green pass are banned from public spaces, basic freedoms and services, although it is already clear that there is no difference between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated with regards to the Delta variant. In this context, it's easy to see that pharmaceutical and health product companies are spending billions on lobbying politicians around the world. At the moment, in Spain it is not the case. 

In Italy, the protests against the Covid health pass have now been going for 10 weeks.

Surplus vaccine doses

The COVID-19 pandemic has made clear global inequality of our time, as only two percent of people who live in the African continent has been fully vaccinated.

According to Airinfinity Ltd, a science information company headquartered in London, western developed countries could have 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses by the end of this year. As a matter of fact, surplus COVID-19 vaccine shots in US, UK, EU and Japan will not be shipped to poorer countries.

As said by the WTO spokeperson, Keith Rockwell, if we were to delocalise part of vaccine production in developing countries, more shots would go into arms in Africa and Andean countries. Not mention of Israeli data which shows vaccinated people are becoming ill with COVID-19, but that's another story. 

Neha

 

This week an Afghan eight-year-old girl, Neha, was very happy after she had landed at Melsbroek airport in Belgium. "I never want to return to Afghanistan", she said.

A picture of the Afghan girl jumping at the Belgian airport then went around the world. Her happiness symbolizes the hope and relief of many people who fled the taliban regime in Afghanistan 🇦🇫