Caribbean Trade Law and Development

Tag: vaccines

  • Closer Africa-Caribbean Relations: A COVID ‘legacy good’?

    Closer Africa-Caribbean Relations: A COVID ‘legacy good’?

    Alicia Nicholls

    Without doubt, if one considers the significant loss of life, human suffering and economic hardship inflicted by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since December 2019, the negatives far outweigh the positives. But as the saying goes, when ‘life gives you lemons, make lemonade’. For those unfamiliar with this phrase, it is an entreaty to make some good out of a less than ideal situation, no matter how bad it is. In this article, I argue that deeper south-south cooperation, and in particular closer Africa-Caribbean cooperation, appears to be one potential COVID-19 ‘legacy good’.

    First, let me state from the outset that bilateral and regional initiatives towards deepening Africa-Caribbean ties predate COVID-19. For instance, the African Union (AU) has for some time now recognized the African diaspora (including that in the Caribbean) as its sixth region. In 2019, the leaders of two African countries, Ghana and Kenya, respectively, made separate high-level visits to the region. Jamaica has its Africa-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica. An AU-CARICOM forum was planned for July 2020 but had to be unfortunately postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CARICOM also announced the creation of a joint embassy to be housed in Nairobi, Kenya. Moreover, African and Caribbean countries participate and cooperate in various multilateral and other fora, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations (UN), Organisation of Africa, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the Commonwealth of Nations, as examples.

    However, it could be argued that the exigencies of the COVID-19 crisis have intensified the need for deeper Africa-Caribbean collaboration on areas of mutual interest in multilateral fora and at the regional and bilateral levels. As many western countries turned inward to focus on bringing the crisis under control in their countries, Caribbean countries were forced to turn to newer non-traditional partners for assistance in accessing vaccines. For instance, to use another South-South example, India’s generous donation of vaccines to Barbados and Dominica were critical to the start of Barbados’ vaccine programme which to date has vaccinated over 70,000 Barbadians, or nearly a third of the population. As such, it is heartbreaking to watch what is happening in India at the moment as it undergoes a deadly second-wave. I continue to keep our Indian brothers and sisters in my prayers.

    Turning back to Africa, CARICOM was also granted access to the Africa Medical Supplies Platform, a procurement system for medical supplies. Jamaica became the first CARICOM Member State to receive vaccine supplies under that mechanism. In a COVID-19 environment, improved vaccine access for developing countries has been a unifying theme for Africa and Caribbean countries’ multilateral cooperation, including at the sub-regional level. Both regions have condemned vaccine nationalism, particularly the hoarding of vaccines and imposition of export controls on needed medical supplies by some developed countries.

    Another laudable recent development in Africa-Caribbean cooperation is the formation of the Africa-CARICOM Group (AfCAR), a geopolitical grouping of sixty-eight African and Caribbean countries in the UN in March this year. Their first act was to issue a joint statement in the UN General Assembly in commemoration of  the ‘International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade’.

    There are many other areas in which Africa-Caribbean cooperation already exist, such as climate change, debt relief, financing for development and repatriations for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, for example. There has been some  high-level cooperation involving Caribbean, African and Pacific countries on raising awareness on the de-risking issue, manifested most acutely by the withdrawal or restriction by large Western banks of correspondent banking services to banks in developing countries. African and Caribbean countries are among the most affected by this practice which has implications for trade, investment attraction and financial inclusion. The upcoming UNCTAD XV Quadriennial Conference due to be hosted virtually and chaired by Barbados in October this year presents another opportunity for our regions to collaborate on placing these and other issues on the global trade and development agenda.

    Additionally, as tourism-dependent Caribbean economies hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic seek to step up diversification efforts, African countries are among those targeted for greater economic engagement. Barbados has announced the creation of embassies in Ghana and Kenya (part of the CARICOM joint effort), while Jamaica will establish diplomatic relations with Liberia and Togo. Both Barbados and Jamaica have indicated the deployment of enhanced economic diplomacy as part of their Post-COVID-19 recovery strategies. There are also promising areas for further regional and bilateral collaboration, such as agri-business and sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, the cultural industries, education and digital payments systems.

    Naturally, for this momentum of closer Africa-Caribbean ties to be sustained, it must transcend the political level and trickle down to greater business-to-business and people-to-people engagement. Banking relationships would also need to improve to faciliate greater trade between the two regions. Current political discussions on improving air and sea connectivity would help to bolster the still meagre tourism, trade and investment ties between the two regions. Africa-Caribbean goods trade volumes remain small, with CARICOM countries enjoying a trade surplus with the continent on a whole.

    At the bilateral level, December 2020 saw an inaugural direct flight between Montego Bay (Jamaica) and Lagos (Nigeria), in hopes of commencing a regularly scheduled and most overdue direct link between the African continent and the English-speaking Caribbean. The potential for strong Africa-Caribbean tourism exists as an increasing number of Afro-Caribbean persons are interested in tracing their genealogy, discovering their African roots and learning about the ‘Motherland’. Encouragingly, the region’s top tertiary institution, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the University of Ghana. This raises the possibility of enhanced student and faculty exchanges, other educational collaboration and meaningful academic research between our two regions.

    As I conclude, I concur with the sage words of Dr. Len Ishmael who noted in her 2019 study ‘Under-invested: The Caribbean-African Relationship‘:

    “The future of Caribbean-African relations is one ripe with potential and promise, but it requires
    the investments of time, attention and political will to transform the relationship into one fit for
    purpose and suitable for these modern times.”

    It would also be remiss of me if in concluding I fail to lament the dearth of scholarship on Africa-Caribbean relations. As such, Afronomics Law will be hosting a scholarly Blog Symposium examining the “Prospects for deepening Africa-Caribbean Economic Relations”. The deadline for submission of blog contributions is May 14. Learn more about the symposium and how to submit a blog piece here.

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. All views herein expressed are her personal views and should not be attributed to any institution with which she may from time to time be affiliated. You can read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.

  • Vaccinate now, vaccinate everyone: Vaccines, viruses and the war for immunological supremacy

    Vaccinate now, vaccinate everyone: Vaccines, viruses and the war for immunological supremacy

    Image by hakan german from Pixabay

    By Dr. Garrey Michael Dennie, Guest Contributor

    In the late 60’s and early 70’s the polio virus swept through St. Vincent in waves of fearsome fury. In Rose Place, it killed eight year old Sandra Culzac. As a child in Rose Place I still remember the fear as the invisible and lethal enemy stalked our homes, broke the bodies of children, permanently crippled their lives, and brought death to our doors. The virus was merciless. Chance and chance alone decided who lived, who died, who became crippled, and who escaped the deformities that polio inflicted on our young bodies.

    Today, no Vincentian child has to fear polio. Indeed with a few exceptions, the threat that polio posed to earlier generations of children all over the world is no more. And the reason for this is simple: mass vaccination campaigns have virtually eradicated polio from the world.

    In fact, what is true for polio is even more so for another killer virus: small pox. In the 20th century alone, small pox killed more than 300 million people worldwide. Indeed in 1492 when Columbus and the Spaniards who followed him arrived in the Americas, they brought with them small pox and a cocktail of other lethal viruses. But small pox was the single greatest instrument of conquest that destroyed indigenous civilizations. With no immunity to small pox, indigenous people died in the millions.

    Today, however, small pox is gone, utterly and completely eradicated from the face of the earth. Again, the reason is simple: mass vaccination campaigns removed from the planet a lethal virus that had slaughtered humanity for thousands of years.

    The Covid-19 pandemic that currently afflicts us certainly bears deep comparison to these great viral killers of the past. It has shattered economies, destroyed international flights, shuttered borders, infected more than 100 million people, and killed more than two million. In the face of such immense suffering some people have sought refuge in their faith. And faith indeed can provide comfort in times of great stress.

    Others, however, have sought to traffic and profit from legitimate human fears by promoting false cures to the fearful and the uninformed. And more dangerous still, some have embraced a Cult of Death, essentially declaring that our most treasured medical research institutions and our strongest scientific minds cannot be trusted to guide us through this medical crisis that currently engulfs the world. They would therefore have us do nothing as Covid-19 rages around us killing and maiming at will.

    However, we should be clear on this point: the defeat of SARS 2, the virus that causes Covid-19 is absolutely certain. We do not know the precise time when we would declare victory. But we do know the manner by which that defeat would be administered: the mass vaccination of the world’s population against the SARS 2 virus would immunize the vast majority of the people against contracting Covid-19.

    It is highly unlikely that every person on the planet would take the vaccine. But that is not necessary. The key concern is that the global population achieves what immunologists describe as herd immunity. In the instance of Covid-19 it simply means that if around 85 percent of the population in every country is vaccinated that would squeeze out the opportunity for the virus to replicate. Without the opportunity to replicate, the virus ultimately faces extinction.

    Vaccines defy viruses by denying them the capacity to seize our cells and transform them into viral replicators. They do this by a simple trick. They expose our bodies to a dead virus or a protein from the virus that cannot harm us. Our immune system interprets this as a dangerous assault against us and goes into full combat mode producing antibodies designed to destroy the invasive pathogen. And this is where the magic happens. Our immune system remembers this attack and the next time it meets the virus it is fully prepared to repel it from our system.

    Our scientists have known this for more than 200 years. We produced the first vaccines in the 1790s. And over the next 200 years we continued to perfect our capacity to make vaccines. We therefore stand today in a world of extraordinary medical, scientific, and engineering expertise without parallel in the past 200 years of medical history.

    The proof of this is staring us in the face. For whereas the virus has already killed more than two million people in just one year, in the USA alone, American health officials have administered more than 50 million vaccinations and not a single person has died from any vaccine. Indeed, in Israel, more than 700,000 people took the Pfizer and Modena vaccines and 99.95 percent of those vaccinated have failed to contract the virus. These numbers are simply incredible, a testament to the intellectual firepower we have brought to bear against the virus. In fact, what we do know is that although the vaccines vary in their capacity to prevent illness, every single one of them prevents an infected person from dying of Covid-19. These numbers clearly tell us that after a year of tears, the reign of Covid-19 should come to a swift end.

    Some caution, however, is due. The struggle to defeat this virus might take longer than it should because of scientific illiteracy. Anti-vaxxer communities proliferate on the Internet and they have used the Internet to propagate lies, scams, and deceit about the vaccines. Their ignorance of medical history guarantees that they will continue to direct their misinformation at the ranks of the uniformed.

    Quite frankly, anti-vaxxers lie, and people die. For the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, however, whose first duty is to honour the scientific and historical truths in the fight against Covid-19, the way forward should be plain: vaccinate now, vaccinate everyone, and crush this virus. It is a war we must win.

    Dr. Garrey Michael Dennie is an Associate Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

    The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the guest author and are not necessarily representative of those of the Caribbean Trade Law & Development Blog.