Talks ongoing ahead of Bahrain's Janssen single shot vaccine roll-out

A single shot coronavirus vaccine supplied by Janssen is yet to be added to the inoculation schedule in Bahrain after the Belgian drug maker said discussions with the government in Manama were continuing.

As The National reported on Monday, supplies of the vaccine by Johnson & Johnson-owned Janssen were expected to arrive in Bahrain.

Residents were able to access the Sinopharm, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines on Wednesday. They can choose a vaccine where available.

Bahrain was the first Gulf nation, and one of the first worldwide, to approve the vaccine for use after the US last week.

"We are in ongoing discussions with kingdom of Bahrain government authorities regarding supply of the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine. However, the details of these negotiations are confidential," a representative of Johnson & Johnson said.

“We will provide an update as and when an agreement is finalised.”

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In December 2020, Janssen reached an agreement in principle with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance to provide up to 500 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine candidate in support of the Covax facility.

Covax is designed to meet the initial vaccination needs of 190 participant economies, including Bahrain.

It is jointly led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Gavi and the World Health Organisation, alongside delivery partner Unicef.

Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Similar to the UAE, Bahrain was among global leaders in the race to vaccinate its small population.

Since the early days of the roll-out, the nation has faced setbacks as supplies of scheduled vaccines slowed.

So far, Bahrain has administered vaccines providing protection to roughly 17 per cent of the population.

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Gertrude Bell's life in focus

A feature film

At one point, two feature films were in the works, but only German director Werner Herzog’s project starring Nicole Kidman would be made. While there were high hopes he would do a worthy job of directing the biopic, when Queen of the Desert arrived in 2015 it was a disappointment. Critics panned the film, in which Herzog largely glossed over Bell’s political work in favour of her ill-fated romances.

A documentary

A project that did do justice to Bell arrived the next year: Sabine Krayenbuhl and Zeva Oelbaum’s Letters from Baghdad: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Gertrude Bell. Drawing on more than 1,000 pieces of archival footage, 1,700 documents and 1,600 letters, the filmmakers painstakingly pieced together a compelling narrative that managed to convey both the depth of Bell’s experience and her tortured love life.

Books, letters and archives

Two biographies have been written about Bell, and both are worth reading: Georgina Howell’s 2006 book Queen of the Desert and Janet Wallach’s 1996 effort Desert Queen. Bell published several books documenting her travels and there are also several volumes of her letters, although they are hard to find in print. Original documents are housed at the Gertrude Bell Archive at the University of Newcastle, which has an online catalogue.