A Missed Shot
August 4, 2021
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“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” — William Blake
A Missed Shot
70% of all U.S. adults — over 146 million — have now gotten at least one COVID-19 shot. And even though President Biden’s goal was missed by a month, much of the rest of the world falls far short of that success rate.
After the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa killed over 11,000 people and devastated the economy by more than $53 billion, the need was clear for a coordinated, international, and intergovernmental plan to develop and deploy new vaccines to prevent future epidemics. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and a consortium of governments co-funded the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which was formally launched at the World Economic Forum in 2017. When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, CEPI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), and the World Health Organization (WHO) created COVAX, with goals of accelerating the development and manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines and sharing them with the world.
Wealthy nations were able to acquire newly-developed vaccines as soon as they were available; they also promised billions of dollars in funding so that poorer countries could get vaccines for free. Despite a financing gap of $23 billion, COVAX got underway in February 2021, shipping hundreds of thousands of doses to the West African nation of Ghana. Organizers hoped to deliver two billion doses worldwide this year.
By May, more than 600 million people around the globe had been at least partially vaccinated, but more than seven billion had not. Half of the doses delivered primarily went into the arms of people in the U.S. and Europe; dozens of countries, particularly in Africa, had barely started their inoculation campaigns. Because there are only so many factories that can make vaccines, and only so many people trained to do so, and because wealthy countries stockpiled as much as they could get, COVAX faced a vaccine shortfall.
By June, deaths from COVID-19 were surging across Africa when the initiative delivered 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine to Chad, and even more AstraZeneca doses to nearby Benin. Then, a new stumbling block appeared: by July, there were still 94,000 unused doses of vaccine in Chad; in Benin, 110,000 unused doses expired. Even when doses are available, distribution is a monumental challenge. Internal documents showed COVAX was monitoring at least nine countries where doses intended for the poor were at risk of spoiling this summer.
Now, the Delta variant is running rampant, the exact nightmare scenario COVAX organizers wanted to avoid. The initiative has struggled with delays and infighting, and bureaucratic barriers imposed by its leadership have held up the disbursement of $220 million to help countries administer the vaccines. While the 163 million doses it has delivered is a remarkable achievement, it’s far short of the plan to have at least 640 million doses available by now.
Supporters and critics agree COVAX must improve, and rapidly. A month ago 22 nations, some with surging fatalities, reported being nearly or entirely out of doses from the program. “The way COVAX was packaged and branded, African countries thought it was going to be their savior,” said the director of the African Population and Health Research Center. “When it didn’t meet expectations, there was nothing else.” (NYT, World Vision, CEPI, GAVI)
Bela-rooting Out Activism
- Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, appears to be mirroring the deadly pursuits of his close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Tuesday, prominent activist Vitaly Shishov, who helped his fellow Belarusians seek refuge in Ukraine, was found hanged in a Kyiv park near his home. The 26-year-old led the Belarusian House in Ukraine, which helps people fleeing Belarus to settle abroad. His partner reported Shishov missing Monday when he did not return from his morning run.
- In the past year, Lukashenko has brutally cracked down on any dissent, arresting thousands and causing many Belarusians to flee to Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Recently, Lukashenko has become more aggressive in his campaign against critics abroad. The president of the European Parliament tweeted that the strongman’s targeting of Belarusian activists in third countries “is a serious escalation.” (WaPo)
Tanking Relations
- Iranian gunmen are believed to have hijacked an oil tanker Tuesday in the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Tensions have simmered in the region after a drone attack last Thursday on an Israeli-managed tanker in the nearby Arabian Sea that resulted in the deaths of two crew members. The U.S., Israel, and Britain blame the Islamic Republic for the attack; Iran has denied responsibility.
- Tuesday’s seizure occurred in the same area as a number of attacks in 2019 that threatened to disrupt shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest waterways. The attacks have led the U.S. and its allies to stand watch as commercial ships travel through international waters near the Arabian Sea to deter further suspected Iranian aggression. (WSJ)
Additional World News
- People Evacuate Wildfires In Turkey’s Beach Resorts (NPR)
- Palestinians fight eviction in Sheikh Jarrah (WaPo, $)
- German warship heads for South China Sea for first time in two decades amid tension with Beijing (CNN)
- Hackers block Italian Covid-19 vaccination booking system in ‘most serious cyberattack ever’ (CNN)
- Tehran and much of Iran slowly sink as water tables lower (LAT, $)
- Dozens of bodies found floating in river between Ethiopia’s Tigray and Sudan (Guardian)
- Firemen fighting wildfires in Sicilian town of Catania (Reuters)
Cuo-sing Time
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, the son of three-term New York Governor Mario Cuomo, brother of CNN host Chris Cuomo, member of former President Bill Clinton’s cabinet, and leading figure in the Democratic Party, received rave reviews for his daily televised coronavirus briefings in the early weeks of the pandemic. It was all downhill after that.
- First, Cuomo was found to have misreported the number of nursing home deaths. Then, he was accused by 11 women of having sexually harassed them, claims he vehemently denies. However, an independent investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo had harassed the women, created a “climate of fear” in a “toxic workplace,” and violated federal and state laws.
- James released an explosive 165-page report that delivers a mountain of damning and often graphic evidence. Some incidents “involved intentional touching and grabbing of private parts, including the butt and the breast.” Top elected Democratic officials demanded that Cuomo resign. In a video statement Tuesday from his office in Albany, the three-term governor claimed his actions had been misinterpreted. (NYT, Guardian)
Two More Capitol Responders Die By Suicide
- Two more D.C. police officers have taken their own lives in the wake of the January 6 attack on the Capitol Building; the number of officer suicides now stands at four. “Officer Gunther Hashida, assigned to the Emergency Response Team within the Special Operations Division, was found deceased in his residence on Thursday, July 29,” said a police department spokesperson.
- Metropolitan Police Officer Kyle DeFreytag was found dead on July 10. Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith and US Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood also responded to the insurrection and later died by suicide. Another Capitol Police officer, Brian D. Sicknick, suffered strokes and died of natural causes one day after responding to the riot. More than 550 people have been charged in connection with the insurrection. (CNN)
Additional USA News
- Delta infections among vaccinated likely contagious; Lambda variant shows vaccine resistance in lab (Yahoo)
- Expiration of eviction moratorium leaves White House and congressional Democrats scrambling (CNN)
- Letter: Trump legal team not trying to block testimony of former DOJ officials (Politico)
- White House once again makes Covid-19 the focus of Biden’s schedule (CNN)
- ‘A one-man scam Pac’: Trump’s money hustling tricks prompt fresh scrutiny (Guardian)
- $1T infrastructure bill gets first action as senators dig in (AP)
Silent But Deadly
The potentially catastrophic release of methane gas from thawing wetlands in Siberia’s permafrost — dubbed “the methane bomb” — has worried scientists for a long time. Now, a study by three geologists finds that a heatwave in 2020 caused a surge in methane emissions “potentially in much higher amounts” from thawing rock formations in the Arctic permafrost. The prehistoric limestone at issue is located in two regions, is several miles wide, 375 miles long, and is “much more dangerous” than past studies have suggested.
The reason is that thawing wetlands releases “microbial” methane from the decay of soil and organic matter, whereas thawing limestone, or carbonate rock, releases hydrocarbons and gas hydrates from reservoirs both below and within the permafrost. The scientists used satellite maps that measured intense methane concentrations over two “conspicuous elongated areas” of limestone in the Taymyr Peninsula and the area around northern Siberia. The long strips of land have hardly any soil or vegetation, so the limestone crops out of the surface.
During the heatwave of 2020, temperatures rose 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1979-2000 norms. The rock formations warmed up, cracks and pockets opened up, and methane trapped inside was released. Concentrations of methane were elevated by about 5%. Despite the later return of low temperatures and snow in the region, further tests showed the concentration of methane continued through the spring of 2021.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the carbonates in the outcroppings date back to the Paleozoic era, 541 million years ago. “We would have expected elevated methane in areas with wetlands,” one of the geologists said. “But these were not over wetlands but on limestone outcrops…. a surprising signal from hard rock, not wetlands.”
In other sobering news, Polar Portal — a website where Danish Arctic research institutions present updated information about ice — said last week that a “massive melting event” occurred that had been big enough to cover the entire state of Florida with two inches of water. (WaPo)
Additional Reads
- Macaques at Japan reserve get first alpha female in 70-year history (Guardian)
- Life on Earth: Did longer days fuel the planet’s oxygen growth? (USA Today)
- The Weird, Sustainable Booze of the Future Tastes … Good? (Wired)
- The recycling myth: A plastic waste solution littered with failure (Reuters)
- Trusted platform module security defeated in 30 minutes, no soldering required (Ars Technica)
- Why companies aren’t paying more despite labor shortages (Axios)