Vaccines of hope

Millions of people around the world have high hopes for a coronavirus vaccine. Many are concerned about possible side-effects, but we should listen to the experts who claim that vaccines have no secondary effects. Either they have an effect and serve to prevent infection and disease because the body has created sufficient defences against the virus, or they don't work and the injection won't do any good. It should also be taken into account the so-called placebo effect that most medicines have on apprehensive people who have the problem in their minds and the cure is achieved by conviction rather than by the real effect of the medicine. In this case, at a global level, the vaccine has to work, we need it to be successful because, in addition, we are seeing new variants, new virulent strains in the United Kingdom and in South Africa which require intensified efforts and safety measures to prevent contagion.  

The decision for governments to centralize the purchase, distribution and application of the doses is positive and should put people and countries on an equal footing, regardless of their political relevance or economic resources. Although, let us not deceive ourselves, there will always be some self-serving deviation. 

For the moment, attention is being drawn to the strong safety measures adopted by the laboratories in coordination with each of the countries for the transfer in very special cold conditions to the different countries and their subsequent distribution to the centres where the vaccine will be administered. The routes and schedules have been kept as the most precious secret and the reason is the one that causes a chill: organized crime could be tempted to steal some cargo of a product that is not sold, but that many people would pay a very high price for the right doses. It is assumed that the Intelligence and Security services have obtained the proven information to assess this risk which produces intense shivers and a galloping indignation. To think that, at this time, which is so delicate and distressing for millions of human beings, there is some inhumane who is capable of stealing the vaccines to make a profit on the black market, strikes us directly in our conscience and shakes us towards a reality that is much cruder and starker than that offered by the films. Without going any further, some decisions and behaviours of political leaders border on such a high standard and only a swift and rigorous justice can settle and remedy such petty evils. Vaccines are coming along with the hope of recovering our lives, almost as they were before.