Waiting for the sms from the vaccine authority seems rather like standing in an orderly queue for a lifeboat on the Titanic. Admirable, but unwise.

Completing the process at the DisChem headquarters in Midrand took five hours.

Sure it was a Ben Hur, but without exception every Dischem employee I encountered – from the guard who showed us our place in the queue to director Stan Gates who walked into the “recovery room” to ask recipients how things were progressing  – was obviously bent on being helpful.

It was one of the seminal new South African experiences: along with the first democratic election in 1994 and hosting the Football Word Cup in 2010.

We were in this fight against COVID together, and determined to beat the lurgy.

On social media I learn that many friends have received their vaccine must quicker and more efficiently. Good luck, I say to them. We are in this fight together.

It seems that all of us now have to wait 42 days to get the second jab.

There is a bid to tell us this is the most efficacious application of the vaccine. I don’t believe it.

We are being made to wait so that more people can get the first dose of the limited supplies of  vaccine available.

Remember the people now telling us about the need to wait are the same people whe were telling us 14 months ago that we did not need masks because they were afraid we would gobble up the available masks to the detriment of the health workers.

So wait I will.

Not at all sure where I will go to get the second jab. It would be great to avoid the five-hour process at GenChem, even if this means missing another chance to see  my new-found pandemic friends.

Discovery boss Adrian Gore has written a letter saying members should try the sites being set up by his medical aid society.

He seems confident there will be enough Pfizer to dispense the second injections.

From his mouth to God’s ear!

President Cyril Ramaphosa just tightened a band of cold steel around my testicles – metaphorically speaking, of course – telling us that South Africa would chuck out two million does of Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

He’s blaming a contamination scare at its source in the the United States.

To his credit, Ramaphosa acted swiftly, decisively and courageously locking down South Africa early on in the pandemic.

However his government’s record in dispensing the vaccine this year as been less than impressive. Plainly speaking it has been marked by dithering and, by all accounts, corruption.

That is the antithesis of the British experience where Boris Johnson fiddled at the start of the pandemic, costing thousands of lives, but has done a sterling job of getting vaccine into Britons’ arms.

Could the G7 come to our aid?

At their summit in Cornwall last weekend, the leaders of Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Japan, Canada and Italy committed themselves to providing a billion doses of vaccine to poorer countries within the year.

Critics say this is a drop in the ocean for the developing world that needs at least ten times that amount.

We can talk about lifting the intellectually property rights to allow vaccine to be manufactured in South Africa, Senegal and other countries ready and able to do it.

If successful, that would be months away.

We need a quicker solution if we are to achieve the much vaunted herd mentality and avoid the plethora of variants to which we no longer may attach a national appellation.

Away with the political correctness and down with the blame game, I say with unashamed selfishness as I prepare to line up for my second dose.

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The practical issues of fighting the pandemic is best summed up in the assertion that no-one if safe until everyone is safe.

The moral issues, equally plain, have been more problematic as rich nations grab more of the vaccine than they need to save their faltering economies.

The foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan  and the United States had a packed agenda preparing for next month’s G7 summit to be hosted in Britain.

In pre-meeting briefings they listed Russia, Myanmar and Iran ahead of COVID a.

Then members of the Indian delegation – invited as observers along with Australia, the Association of South East Asian Nations, the European Union, South Africa and South Korea- reported cases of COVID and were forced into self-isolation.

India and Brazil are responsible for the overwhelming majority of COVID cases as the pandemic goes into its third wave.

The media covering the deliberations at Lancaster House in London’s West End have eyes for nothing else.

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown set the moral tone calling on the G7 to fund the global push for COVID vaccine.

Speaking as the UN Envoy for Global Education he called on the richest nations raise $60 billion over two years, saying inaction now would lead to greater global division.

“By our failure to extend vaccination more rapidly to every country, we are choosing who lives and who dies”, he warned. 

“And I say the world is already too deeply divided between rich and poor to allow a new unbridgeable divide to become entrenched between the world’s vaccinated who live, and the under-vaccinated who are at risk of dying.” 

Brown asserted that mass global vaccination is not an act of charity, but “the best insurance policy for the world”.  Though costing billions now, the result will be “trillions of additional economic output, made possible when trade resumes in a COVID-free world.” 

Brown will be remembered as the British premier who hosted the G20 summit in 2009, where the world’s major economies committed an additional $1.1 trillion to address the fallout from the global financial crisis,  

World Health Organization  chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus thanked Brown for his call to the world’s economic and political leaders. 

“The G7 are also home to many of the world’s vaccine producers. We will only solve the vaccine crisis with the leaders of these countries”, he said.

For those of a more cynical or dubious bent, a poll by the People’s Vaccine Alliance shows that70 percent of G7 citizens believe their governments should ensured pharmaceutical companies share the formulas and technology of their vaccines.

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It expects COVID 19-related unemployment to slash a fifth of this financial economic lifeline crucial to vulnerable communities.

The remittances sent home by Third World citizens working in wealthy countries is three times larger than the  global development aid given by those countries.

The World Bank says COVID 19 economic difficulties has caused a drop of $110 billion in remittances this year.

This  will bring it  down 20 percent to below $450-billion.

For example, remittances from Britain to Africa are down 80%, while remittances from Italy to Africa are down 90%.

This as the United Nations University predicts an increase in global poverty for the first time since 1990.

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The European border guard Frontex is flying over the Mediterranean this morning in search of the dinghy carrying the migrants..

At the weekend, two German boats monitoring those in peril on the sea spotted four craft off the southern coast of Malta.

They had set out from Libya, bound for Italy.

One of them has since arrived at its destination another two are still at sea.

The court dinghy is unaccounted for. 

UNHCR spokesperson Carlotta Sami says they fear the missing boat has capsized.

In addition to Frontex, the European Coast Guard and a German Sea Watch vessel are engaged in the search. 

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It will involve searching ships in the Mediterranean carrying arms off Libya and checking on illegal fuel and oil being smuggled from the war-torn North African country.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says diplomacy cannot work without enforcement action. 

Europe will use its aerial, satellite and maritime assets to ensure the UN arms embargo against Libya is enforced.

A previous attempt to do this was blocked by the then Italian government claiming the use of warships attracted illegal immigrants to its shores.

The EU announcement came as rebels loyal to Khalifa Haftar shelled Tripoli days after agreeing to ceasefire with the Government of National Accord to allow medics to deal with the COVID 19 pandemic  

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The victim is an 89-year-old woman who contracted COVID 19 in Italy.

At the same as confirming the death of the 89-year-old woman who had respiratory problems and heart disease, Moroccan authorities announced two new cases of COVID19. that brings to three the total in that Maghreb country.

Royal Air Maroc, the national carrier has suspended flights from Venice and Milan.

Italy is in lockdown with deaths from COVID 19 rising to 463.

The Moroccan woman’s death follows a COVID19-related death in Egypt of a German tourist who reportedly refused to go into isolation.

Nine African countries are treating cases of coronavirus.

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It urges all parties immediately to cease hostilities and the fight for the capital Tripoli.

The statement by Britain, Egypt, France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates and the United States is the latest response to warlord Khalifa Haftar’s four-month assault on Tripoli that’s cost 1 093 lives and displaced more than a hundred thousand people.

The statement says there is no military solution to Libya’s crisis since the 2011 overthrow of Muammar Gadaffi.

The fighting has prevented the UN-backed Government of National Accord from holding elections to end the fighting in the oil-rich North African country. 

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Maltese naval vessels ferried the refugees ashore because the German-flagged vessel was not allowed into Valetta harbor

The migrants will be moved to Germany, France, Portugal and Luxembourg who agreed to take them in. They’ve come from Libya, where fighting around the capital Tunis has prevented naval operations curbing refugee boats starting the perilous crossing to Europe. So far this year, 356 migrants have drowned or gone missing on the Mediterranean.

Malta and Italy have barred rescue ships from their harbours.

The 67 aboard the Alan Kurdi, named after a three-year-old Syrian son of migrants who drowned in 2015, were in desperate straits on the overcrowded the vessel.

Two had already been evacuated because of  medical emergencies. 

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United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has joined Western and Arab powers in calling for peace.

ends intro

UN boss Antonio Guterres was in Tripoli visiting the UN-backed Prime Minister Fayes Al Serraj when the so called Libyan National Army started its advance on Tripoli.

Guterres appealed for calm

“There is no military solution anywhere in the world and certainly not military solution in Libya,” he said.

His appeal was echoed by the United States, Britain, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates.

Libya is  virtually ungovernable because of violence following the 2011 fall of Muammar Gadaffi.

The UN-backed government in Tripoli is held hostage by the Benghazi-based rebels in east of the country 

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The South African owners of MTN are seeking an urgent explanation from Museveni, as are the governments of France, Italy, Rwanda and Belgium who’s nationals he booted out.

The exact motivation for deporting MTN Uganda chief executive Wim Vanhelleputte last week and four other top MTN executives  two weeks earlier is unclear.

Ugandan officials say the executive remained in contact after the expulsions and were running the company over the internet.

Others insist the action is a manifestation of a bitter row between Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni who is sheltering member of the Rwanda National Congress opposed to his counterpart Paul Kagame

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