Sixty-four of the world’s richest countries have joined forces to distribute Covid-19 vaccines to less developed nations. Their efforts illustrate how central global co-operation will be in the fight against the virus and in overcoming economic obstacles to vaccination.
The Covax Facility, comprising 64 developed nations, is a global initiative that is part of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, initiated by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It has helped vaccinate half the world’s children against deadly diseases.
Other global initiatives have successfully curbed the spread of deadly disease and viruses. The Covax Facility is inspired by their successes. In 1988, the World Health Assembly – the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation – passed a resolution to eradicate poliomyelitis, better known as polio.
That same year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was founded. It eradicated 99.9 per cent of polio incidences, saving the lives of an estimated 1.5 million people. An additional 16 million people would have been paralysed by the debilitating disease were it not for the GPEI’s vaccination campaigns.
The GPEI had, however, 32 years to achieve this goal. The international community is hoping to contain the coronavirus pandemic in much less time. Funds and co-ordinated efforts are needed at all levels for the global Covid-19 vaccination campaign to be a success. The UAE is a long-time supporter of Gavi, and its first donor from the Middle East. As early as 2011, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, contributed $ 33 million to immunisation campaigns in Afghanistan, and more than $150 million since 2013 towards polio vaccination in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In 2017, the UAE pledged $5 million to for a programme meant to help developing nations modernise their immunisation systems.
Even the most developed countries have struggled to contain this global health crisis. The US is the world’s biggest economy, yet it is the nation with the most Covid-19 cases.
Yet deploying an adequate coronavirus response is even more challenging for developing nations. Two out of the three most coronavirus-hit countries globally are poor countries with large populations. But if countries work together to deliver vaccines, the result will benefit everyone, including Middle Eastern countries that have recently seen a surge in infections. This includes crisis-hit Lebanon, which has witnessed a massive outbreak since a blast tore through the capital Beirut on August 4. In neighbouring Syria, the government has consistently underreported Covid-19 cases. Although it is much wealthier, neighbouring Israel has had to go into lockdown again after a renewed outbreak, which also struck the isolated Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Since the onset of the pandemic, the UAE has led the fight against the virus at home and abroad. The UAE has sent more than 1,412 tonnes of Covid-19 aid all over the world, with 1.4 million medical workers supported. No one country is safe from infection if another is left behind.
Even the most developed countries have struggled to contain this global health crisis
Another challenging factor for the Covax Facility is the absence of an internationally available vaccine that is established to be, without a doubt, efficient and safe against Covid-19. This will take time and continued global investment. As vaccine trials continue around the world, medical efforts to come up with effective treatments and ways to curb the virus remain vital.
In addition to the medical challenges of discovering an effective vaccine, and producing enough shots for the entire world population, delivering the jab to the four corners of the world will be “the mission of the century for the global air cargo industry,” according to Alexandre de Juniac, the International Air Transport Association’s chief executive. The equivalent of 8,000 Boeing 747s are needed for this mammoth endeavour. But IATA is already working with global health institutions, airports and drug firms to devise a global airlift plan.
The coronavirus has taken advantage of modern society’s interconnectivity to spread across the globe. Beating it requires concerted international efforts, so that no one is left behind.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last 16, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Borussia Dortmund, midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
The biog
Favourite book: Men are from Mars Women are from Venus
Favourite travel destination: Ooty, a hill station in South India
Hobbies: Cooking. Biryani, pepper crab are her signature dishes
Favourite place in UAE: Marjan Island
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Specs
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SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Atalanta v Juventus (6pm)
AC Milan v Napoli (9pm)
Torino v Inter Milan (11.45pm)
Sunday
Bologna v Parma (3.30pm)
Sassuolo v Lazio (6pm)
Roma v Brescia (6pm)
Verona v Fiorentina (6pm)
Sampdoria v Udinese (9pm)
Lecce v Cagliari (11.45pm)
Monday
SPAL v Genoa (11.45pm)
The%20specs
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The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
The bio:
Favourite holiday destination: I really enjoyed Sri Lanka and Vietnam but my dream destination is the Maldives.
Favourite food: My mum’s Chinese cooking.
Favourite film: Robocop, followed by The Terminator.
Hobbies: Off-roading, scuba diving, playing squash and going to the gym.
The biog
Fatima Al Darmaki is an Emirati widow with three children
She has received 46 certificates of appreciation and excellence throughout her career
She won the 'ideal mother' category at the Minister of Interior Awards for Excellence
Her favourite food is Harees, a slow-cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled wheat berries mixed with chicken
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
The%20Mother%20
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures:
Monday, 1st 50-over match
Wednesday, 2nd 50-over match
Thursday, 3rd 50-over match
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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more from Janine di Giovanni
The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
BELGIUM%20SQUAD
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