As Gordon Brown writes today, Britain has failed to fulfil a pledge to distribute vaccines to poor countries – but with a global pandemic nobody is safe until everybody is safe.
Next week US president Joe Biden will convene a global vaccines summit.
At stake are the lives of millions of people and the world’s ability to contain the spread of coronavirus.
As Gordon Brown writes in today’s paper, Britain and other leading nations have so far failed to fulfil their pledges to distribute vaccines to poor countries.
Only 100 million vaccines have been distributed, despite a promise to distribute 870million doses of vaccines to Africa.
While this is understandable if there was a shortage in medicines, it doesn’t make sense when there are large stocks.
Do you agree? Have your say in the comment section.
Without urgent action we face an additional one to two million global deaths from Covid.
Not only is it morally right to distribute vaccines, but so too is it ethically. It is also in our own self-interest.
In the face of a global pandemic, nobody is safe unless everyone is safe.
Culture low
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was once dismissed as the ministry for fun.
However, it is an important portfolio covering topics ranging from online safety to racism within sport.
Boris Johnson’s appointment of Nadine Dorries as the head of the department shows that he doesn’t take these issues seriously.
It is not her turn on I’m a Celebrity that counts against her. Her only interest in this brief was to make offensive comments about gay rights, media and race.
Nor does it fill you with confidence that the minister in charge of cyber security bragged about sharing her passwords with office staff.
It should have been someone with a passion for culture and not someone who can rely on keyboards to do the job.