Pandemic Revisited~I

Unquestionably, the greatest catastrophe to befall mankind in the twenty-first century was the Covid-19 pandemic, which raged across continents, sparing no one, leaving no corner of the globe untouched. Hence, the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in South-East Asia, particularly Singapore and Hong Kong, and the rise in Covid-19 cases in Thailand and China ~ the source of the first Covid-19 wave in 2020 ~ has epidemiologists worried the world over. The rise in Covid-19 cases across Asia, even during summer months, may not herald another wave of the pandemic but the current outbreak does show that Covid-19 is not done and dusted ~ the virus is alive and kicking, and mutating to newer forms.

The disadvantaged bore the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic; almost 40 per cent of Covid deaths in the US were reported from residential institutions housing the old and disabled. Ill thought-out policies like nationwide lockouts worsened existing inequalities, hitting the poorest of the poor especially hard. Stagnating industrial production and disruptions to global trade caused by the pandemic resulted in world-wide galloping inflation, and worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war. According to World Food Programme (WFP) estimates, the spike in food and fuel prices resulted in 345 million people experiencing food insecurity in 2021 ~ more than double the pre-pandemic number.

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Sadly, during such difficult times, the added economic strain from the pandemic forced cash-strapped Governments to cut spending on public welfare and public services, like health and education. According to WHO, the Covid-19 pandemic that ravaged the planet for almost three years, infected more than 750 million people, resulting in more than 6.8 million deaths. However, the pandemic was God’s own gift for certain categories of corporations; pharmaceutical companies that manufactured vaccines and related products for Covid19; technology giants offering work from home; and online retailers supplying lockdown necessities. Pharmaceutical companies developed lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines and associated health products with massive amounts of public money but refused to share their knowledge and technology with the world, putting profit over human lives.

Peoples’ Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over one hundred organisations working for equitable access to medical technologies, estimated that the companies behind two of the most successful Covid-19 vaccines ~ Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna ~ made combined profits of $65,000 every minute in 2021. These companies made windfall US$90 billion in profits (Pfizer $35 billion, BioNTech and Moderna $20 billion each, and Sinovac $15 billion) on their Covid-19 vaccines and medicines in 2021 and 2022; such profits arose largely due to decades of research funded by public investment, billions in grants for development and production, and about US$90 billion in Advanced Purchase Agreements (APAs) with governments.

Sadly, these supernormal profits came at a dreadful cost for the poor nations of Asia and Africa, since pharmaceutical companies sold the majority of vaccine doses to rich countries leaving out low income countries. Pfizer and BioNTech delivered less than one per cent of their total vaccine supplies to low income income ntreis, while Moderna delivered just 0.2 per cent, at a time when 98 percent of people in low-income countries had not been fully vaccinated. That the abnormally large profits of the pharma industry were based solely on Covid-19 revenues is borne out from the fact that pharma industry profits retreated to pre pandemic levels in 2023.

The response of the so called ‘enlightened’ West was decidedly selfish; even before any Covid-19 vaccine was approved by WHO, the Western world had negotiated opaque deals with vaccine makers, and bought up almost all vaccines that were yet to be developed. Many of these same rich governments blocked a proposal by India and South Africa at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to waive intellectual property rules for Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines; at a time when a comprehensive waiver could have helped to expand and diversify manufacturing of lifesaving medicines and other health products for poorer countries that they needed to stem the Covid-19 pandemic. British writer Damian Barr has written succinctly: “We may be in the same storm, but we are in different boats.”

As leaders ordered lockdowns the world-over, product delivery companies like Amazon became a lifeline for citizens. Amazon’s stock rose to an alltime high, and the company added a record US$401 billion to its market cap. With up to 75 million people using the Microsoft Teams communication app in a single day, and an unprecedented demand for its other products, Microsoft added almost US$270 billion to its market cap. Apple (US$220 billion), Tesla (US$108 billion), Tencent (US$93 billion) and Facebook (US$86 billion) also recorded unprecedented revenues. Food and energy companies joined in the merrymaking, with the top 95 companies in these sectors raking in US$306 billion in profits. Rich individuals also profited; according to Forbes, the Covid-19 pandemic was responsible for the creation of at least 40 billionaires.

This unprecedented public health crisis exposed humongous systemic failures in global health architecture, deficient government responses and Government actions that exacerbated social inequalities and violated a slew of human rights. The pandemic also led to a spike in anti-Asian, particularly anti-Chinese, hate crimes around the world. Sometimes, such hate spilled over to other minorities. The pandemic also saw an increase in domestic violence. Sadly, many children lost precious years of their childhood as they could neither study or play normally during the Covid years. Melinda Gates was more direct: “This pandemic has magnified every existing inequality in our society ~ like systemic racism, gender inequality, and poverty.”

Even more disturbingly, inequality increased enormously; World Bank studies, economists Chancel and Piketty, Oxfam etc. all have pointed out this fact. According to the Oxfam International report, “Inequality Kills,” the Covid-19 pandemic had diametrically opposite consequences for the rich and poor; for example, high crude prices that made domestic petrol prices surge resulted in windfall profits for oil refiners. No wonder, during pandemic times, the number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142 and their wealth increased from Rs.23 lakh crore to Rs.53 lakh crore. At the same time 84 per cent households suffered a decline in their incomes, with 4.6 crore people falling into abject poverty.

Earlier, too, the “World In – equality Report 2022,” and the homegrown PRICE Survey had reached a similar conclusion i.e., the emergence of an unacceptable degree of poverty and inequality in India ~ results which can be extrapolated to most other countries. Coming from the outrageous to the ludicrous, the Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed djinns and the US for spread of the Coronavirus in Iran. While opposing the ban on religious congregations, clerics in Pakistan declared that Coronavirus could not harm the faithful. The internet was teeming with myriad miracle recipes for preventing/combating Covid-19 and Ultra-Swadeshi types were initially touting cow urine as a sure-shot remedy for Coronavirus.

President Trump is busy cursing the Chinese now for bringing the ‘Wuhan Virus’ to the US. Some of his vengeful ire for multilateral agencies is now focused at the WHO for ‘toeing the Chinese line’ and ‘endangering American lives.’ In the meantime, Trump found time to threaten India into sending the drug, hydroxychloroquine, to the US. Regardless of the fact that US had the highest number of casualties and the highest number of deaths, Trump claimed that the virus was a waning force in the US. Similar exaggerated claims were made by most European leaders, even before the the virus had gone into remission. Despite the fact that world was visited by a spate of pandemics like SARS, H1N1 (Swine Flu), Bird Flu, MERS, Ebola, Zika and Nipah in the last few years, no country, except Germany, had even a semblance of a plan to fight a virus outbreak.

The bluster of world leaders appe – ared to be designed to cover up their own failures in facing the Covid-19 pandemic. Most significantly, in retrospect, the efficacy of vaccines and drugs used to combat the pandemic, are in serious doubt. Though there are conflicting views, it would appear that the pandemic ended mostly on its own ~ leaving mankind to pick up the pieces. Actor Johnny Corn made the best suggestion for a postCovid world: “As we head out of this pandemic, we can change the world. Create a world of love. A world where we are kind to each other. A world where we are kind no matter what class, race, sexual orientation, what religion or lack of or what job we have…Let love and kindness be our roadmap.”

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax)