I have found it really interesting this week as nations have gone into dispute over access to a coronavirus immunity vaccine. It started in America with dear old, and thank God now gone, Donald Trump but has since spread to Europe with the EU Commission about to rewrite the Brexit agreement some 29 days in.
I thought of the words of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres when he stated that “Covid-19 has spread to every corner of the world”. Worst is yet to come, he warned, as the virus is likely to strike many countries with ill-equipped health systems. “In an interconnected world, none of us is safe until all of us are safe”.
Never have I seen a divide between the have and the have nots in such stark contrast and I’m sure it is far worse in some countries that are difficult to access because of restrictions and poor infrastructure. I think our current government deserves a good deal of credit for sourcing as many vaccines as it did and I now look forward to seeing our generosity in helping to resolve this global pandemic, yet we now have to avoid “Vaccine Nationalism”.
I think we can only resolve these wicked problems if we do it globally working together as partners with common agendas. The other wicked problems we have and still need to fix are climate change, cancer and hunger and starvation, which no one in their right mind can ignore. We in the UK have a leading role to play in all with the G7 Summit being held in Carbis Bay, Cornwall in June 2021 with Australia, India and South Korea invited as guest countries and the 26th UN Climate Change Conference being held in Glasgow in November.
We need to continue our role as a leading nation post our exit from the EU but we need to do it with true British wisdom and benevolence for which we have always been well regarded for across the globe rather than the divisive and isolationist approach exemplified in the musings of the last US president.
Everyone of us needs to be proud of who we are and what we do as a nation but also what we do as individuals. I think it is important that we now play a full role in going as green as we can for the future of our environment and have the injection to immunise ourselves when we are offered it to allow all those around us to be free of the persistent worry of Covid-19. For the policies of Government just won’t work if we remain individualistic in our thinking and actions. If we do so we will not be able to return to some sort of new normal.
Cancer is another global problem, with one in every two of us now likely to develop some sort of cancer during their life. I have personal experience of this as someone who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. It appals me that we currently have people waiting for treatment, who can’t be treated because the NHS is focused on Covid-19 patients. So, by removing the scale of Covid and the impact it has on the NHS our physicians and nurses can get back to their day job. My 89 year-old mum has been waiting for a new hip for nearly two years but is currently considered as too high risk given the prevalence of Covid-19 in hospitals. Every step she currently takes is agony.
So, I think we all need to hold ourselves and each other to account as we can all individually help in making our world a better and safer place to be. Wicked problems need collective and individual actions if they are to be resolved. Let’s do our bit.