We are in a war and losing
By Chang Se-moon
“We are in a war right now and the virus is winning.” Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland made this statement Nov. 17 describing the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus. Hogan is well known to Koreans because his wife is a Korean American woman.
New infections in the United States continued to increase, reaching 46,238 cases on Oct. 1 and further rising to 64,553 two weeks later. By Nov. 20, the number had soared to 196,473 according to U.S. data.
In a span of less than two months, the number more than tripled. This is the trend of the virus in allegedly the most advanced country in the world. The rapid rise in the number of new infections clearly shows the urgent need for a vaccine.
On Nov. 13, I received an email notification from my pharmacy, CVS, stating that “CVS Health® has entered into a contract with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We were selected as one of the official COVID-19 Vaccination Program Providers.”
The notification further states that “The U.S. government will make a supply of the COVID-19 vaccine available to CVS Health when authorized and available to administer in pharmacies nationwide. We will offer it to the public through our 10,000 locations, following established vaccine prioritization guidelines.”
On Nov. 16, reputable drug-maker Moderna announced that its coronavirus vaccine was 94.5 percent effective. They joined pharmaceutical giant Pfizer as a front-runner in the global race to contain a raging pandemic that has killed 1.2 million people worldwide.
On Nov. 17, Pfizer announced it had launched a pilot delivery program for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in four U.S. states. On Nov. 18, major news media in the U.S. reported the wide availability of a home testing kit that can provide results within 30 minutes.
Although these messages are addressed mainly to U.S. residents, I have no doubt that people outside the U.S. should also see a light at the end of the tunnel. We may finally be getting close to having a vaccine available to us. These messages also led to my usual thoughts of social justice.
One important question relates to who gets the vaccine first. As the CVS message states, CDC in the U.S. will announce the vaccine prioritization guidelines when the vaccine becomes available.
Clearly, priority will have to be employees who interact with other people face to face. This group includes health care personnel, law enforcement officers, fire fighters, employees of group homes such as nursing homes, employees of retail stores as well as restaurants, and schoolteachers, among others.
What I want us to consider is that instead of fighting for top priority, many groups of people may volunteer to take the vaccine after the critical first and second responders.
People who could volunteer to wait a little longer may include those who work at home, retirees, house husbands and wives, patients at health care facilities, and, especially, most elected officials including presidents, prime ministers, members of congress or national assemblies, and the rich and powerful who can protect themselves.
In this unprecedented time, if we could bring forth our better natures as human beings to care for each other by volunteering to be the last to receive the vaccine and sharing the vaccine with those in poor countries beyond our borders, it could go a long way toward dispelling the global emotional and mental depression currently gripping us.
Chang Se-moon (changsemoon@yahoo.com) is the director of the Gulf Coast Center for Impact Studies.