With shrinking national budgets, increasing deficits, demands for welfare assistance, and economies which are struggling to recover from month long lock-downs and harsh restrictive measures, investing in the unknown is a difficult decision to make.
Developing the capacity to rapidly fill vaccine vials and finish packaging vaccines for manufacturers in a public health emergency, is an issue of national security.
The united declaration calls for a range of measures to safeguard supplies of essential medical goods and support innovation for future Covid-19 treatments and cures.
Now is not the time for countries to look inwards. The crisis will only be resolved, and economies will only recover, if countries are allowed to trade and collaborate freely with each other.
If we are absolutely unable to wait for the epidemiological situation to improve, then the staged approach taken by Selangor is the model to follow.
The pandemic has exposed rural communities living on the edge, where persistent inequality acts as a multiplier to social and economic disruption.
Lack of preparation will result in unsuccessful implementation of the SOPs, increased risks, frustration, conflict, public tension, and most importantly, increased infection and spread of the disease.
New data suggests lung cancer patients seem to be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19.
With continued uncertainty surrounding the end of the partial lockdown which now into the second month, many patients are facing trouble with referrals and rescheduling of their treatments and surgeries.
Let us be kind to each other.
