This is apropos an op-ed "Vaccine inequality and economic misfortune" carried by Business Recorder recently. No doubt the writer, Dr. Omer Javed, has presented a highly scholarly perspective in this regard. He has concluded his argument by saying, among other things that "What a grave tyranny of the neoliberal assault, which has entrenched deeply overtime and needs dismantling, whereby there is serious inequality in the way a life-saving vaccine is being rolled out...." I agree what he says; frankly speaking, I couldn't agree more. How ironic and tragic therefore it is that the global scheme to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries, according to Reuters, faces a "very high" risk of failure, potentially leaving nations home to billions of people with no access to vaccines until as late as 2024. Little do the proponents of neoliberalism appreciate the fact that Covid-19 doesn't discriminate between the rich and the poor, healthy and unhealthy, etc. Shame on them for being so rude and callous.

Karim Bux Rahat (Karachi)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021