The case against covid vaccine passports

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

In a recent episode of the UK-based Spectator TV, Adam Ritchie, Senior Project Manager in vaccine development at Oxford University's Jenner Institute, was asked how ethical it was for the UK and other high-income countries to be giving covid-19 vaccines to those less vulnerable to severe infection while at-risk groups in places such as India faced a long wait for a potentially life-saving jab.

Will the covid-19 jab be added to the International Certificate of Vaccinations booklet?

A jab for life

Considering the Jenner Institute works primarily on diseases that predominantly affect low- to middle-income countries Ritchie responded by saying, unsurprisingly, that he did, in a personal capacity, have some reservations about this.

On a similar theme, earlier this year I wrote about my indifference to be vaccinated, largely based on the assumption that I am in the low-risk category for covid. Subsequent events — being in close and enclosed company of people who, it transpired, had the virus at the time we were together — have made me feel, perhaps wrongly, that I may even be in a lower-than-low-risk bracket. (I am available for medical trials, if the price is right.)

When I published that vaccine article, one big unknown was whether or not inoculation helped reduce transmission.

Ironically enough, on the very day I uploaded the blog piece, preliminary studies were released that suggested the jab does indeed slow the rate of infection. This now seems to be largely accepted. (Do note, however, UK infection rates fell dramatically in the summer of 2020 which suggests that there are many factors at play in terms of contagion.)

This positive vaccine performance being so, the case against getting one is weakened somewhat. Somewhat that is.

There are still not-insignificant reasons why I and many others with similar profiles shouldn't be in a rush to get a vaccine.

For starters, we have that moral issue mentioned above. Is it right that somebody who appears immune and/or already has self-produced defences to covid is given a jab before a highly vulnerable person receives his/her shot?

(Now I know many of you would love for Wrong Way to live forever, but covid is far from the biggest threat to my and many others' existence right now. You must protect me from graver concerns if you want me to stick around for a long time to come.)

'If it is considered immoral for some people to get jabbed right now and even for a few years to come, then how can proof of vaccination in order to travel or whatever be seen as fair?'

Alongside this, owing to the nature of coronavirus, even those already vaccinated in high-risk groups will most likely need a booster dose before my first "turn" comes up — I refer to my turn as stipulated by Colombia's five-stage vaccine rollout programme.

For example, my 77-year-old father received his vaccine in March. To stay sufficiently protected, it's most likely he'll need at least one more jab inside the next year.

Immune to clear thinking

Globally speaking, we're far from having enough doses for all. Thus, for now, the focus should be on getting what we do have to those in greater need, wherever they may be.

Then there's the potential immunity issue. Do I and others like me even need a vaccine for something that doesn't appear to present any real risk to us? We've already seen during this pandemic the many problems that arise when treating the population as a homogeneous unit (do recall those worst-case-scenario models that saw much of the world scramble for the panic button and abandon all proper reasoning).

So taking all that into account, the idea of compulsory covid vaccine passports can also be seen as unethical. If one considers it immoral for some people to get jabbed right now and perhaps for a few years to come, then how on earth can proof of vaccination in order to travel or whatever be seen as fair?

What's more, it will hit the already squeezed under-40s disproportionately, just adding to the hardship brought about by the highly questionable coronavirus-containment measures. The idea of reaching
retirement age with a pension to fall back on seems a long way off for many in that category right now.

In many ways, in these crazy coronavirus times, one can't be too surprised with such a blatant disregard for large sections of our population. Our esteemed leaders' inability to think in any way clearly has been one of the many crippling side effects of the pandemic.

All one can do is to continue to highlight the many inconsistencies in the world's covid-containment battle in the hope that some of those currently controlling our lives will come to their senses. Events of the last 14 months don't instil one with much confidence, however.

What we might need is a new, deadlier global crisis to come along to snap these leaders out of their covid monomania madness.  
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Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Bogotá up in Smoak

Big city life, somewhat paradoxically, can be quite solitary. There are people all around us, yet as we go about our business they may as well not exist. Indeed, at times we might wish that to be the case.

In this regard, Bogotá is no different to any other metropolis (a few barrios excepted). Anonymous, insignificant faces abound.

This Smoak is on fire ...

However, one man is attempting to change this. Going by the belief that everybody has a story to tell — and in Colombia those stories can be quite something — coupled with his skills for photographing people, Jonathan Smoak has set about giving us a greater perspective to the faces we see in Bogotá on a daily basis.

Via his Facebook page Personajes de Bogotá (literally 'Characters of Bogotá'), he has been introducing us to the everyday characters around the city. 

The format is quite simple: a photo or two of the people in focus followed by a brief background blurb of their life story, in both English and Spanish. With more than 7,000 likes on his page so far, Smoak's virtual photo biography certainly seems to have found a niche.

The idea to create it partly came from the hugely popular Humans of New York, a Facebook page that has almost 18 million likes.

Another spark came from Smoak — whose previous humanitarian work has taken him to a host of developing countries — just being here in Bogotá itself. 

"I walk everywhere in the city. There are millions of people and I get a sense there's not much camaraderie, especially between classes and neighbourhoods", he explains. 

"I thought this (personajes) is a good way to humanise and connect races, classes, jobs, artistic communities, businesses — anything — and to say we all have a story."

While he tries to accommodate all sections of society on his page, he does reveal that some Bogotanos are more difficult to feature than others. "The higher up the socio-economic ladder I get, the more people say no." 

He acknowledges that security concerns in a city obsessed with such things, in many instances for sound reasons, probably play a factor in that. 

The fact that he’s a well-built man with a foreign face might also mitigate against him. Yet a few seconds in his company for anyone who might initially be intimidated and you'll find he's very much of the gentle variety.

Smoak's own life story has been quite the adventure. At three months of age his parents left their Virginia home to come to Colombia to work with a charity organisation that helped indigenous communities (it wasn't from nowhere he gained his charitable qualities). The country's secluded plains, in the department of Meta, were to be the family home for the next 17 years.

So while he isn't 'officially' Colombian, the country is another home to him in many ways. 

Yet, as he puts it, with such a background, one almost falls between two stools as to where home is: "Here, when I was growing up I was the 'gringo' and then when I went to the United States I was the strange kid from Colombia. In some sense when you're multicultural you don't have a true home; or they're both home."

Until this latest return to Colombia three years ago, the majority of his adult life was spent in the US, where he married and fathered four children. 

Images of a 'settled' life that might portray, but it was far from that. 

As a university student in Chicago he took a group of his peers to Honduras to install a potable water system in an isolated mountain village. "I did that because I was frustrated returning to the United States with so many people who were not socially and culturally aware of the world."

Out of that frustration emerged a future career where he continued to take university students to help out less well-off communities all over the globe. Countries that have benefitted from his humanitarian work include China, Honduras, India, Pakistan, the Philippines as well as the aforementioned Honduras.

Coming back to Colombia hadn't really been on the cards but a job offer that he just couldn't refuse saw him return. 

Unfortunately, that employment fell through. Not only that, but after setting up a photo studio he had the misfortune of having his top-of-the-range camera stolen last year. 

Despite these blows, he has set about making the country home again, be that temporary or otherwise. In fact, he has tinkered with the idea of doing here in Colombia the same non-profit, humanitarian work that he did elsewhere.

As for Personajes de Bogotá, the future goal is to publish a book with a collection of the best characters and their stories he has featured on the Facebook page. 

In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for the affable Smoak traversing Bogotá's streets, camera in hand. 

Don't be shy guys, he's just trying to make the world a friendlier, more inclusive place.
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Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan - The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Colombia's false friends

One of the initial things that first-time visitors to Colombia pleasantly encounter is the instant friendliness of the locals. In fact, it can almost be a little unsettling. 

They seem to go so much out of their way to help you that you feel they must be trying to get something in return — too good to be true and all that. For those streetwise travellers, your instincts tell you as much, right? 

However, it tends to be the case that passing through this extremely diverse land, on the whole, what you see is what you get. Colombians are just genuinely friendly to you — first up.

Best friends? Don't count on it.

That’s the thing, though — from what we’re discovering, for some of the natives, that initial friendliness is just temporary. 

Now, we realise we’re tackling a big sacred cow here. The maxim that has been perpetuated for some time is that Colombia is one of the friendliest nations on the planet. However, stay a little bit longer than the average tourist here and you begin to see how myopic a view that is. 

Over time, it appears that for some Colombians — both men and women — friendship is a one-way street. In the mid-to-long term, they expect to be ‘up’ in the deal. If they’re not, your companionship will be quickly discarded. 

The term ‘false friends’ — used to describe words in two languages that are similar in appearance and/or pronunciation but have different meanings — is very appropriate to describe some new Colombian acquaintances.

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about. You’ll meet somebody who will come across — as is the initial Colombian standard — very affable and genuine. 

Indeed, they might be so nice as to buy you a drink or invite you for a meal and if you happen to be looking for work or accommodation, or both, they’ll have plenty of contacts to help you out. Promises certainly won’t be in short supply. This warmth will continue for some time and you may feel that you’ve got to a stage where you can trust this person, someone you might call a friend. 

Then there will come a time, almost inevitably, when your new ‘friend’ will either directly ask you for money or you’ll be on a night out and your ‘amigo/a’ won’t have cash for some odd reason. 

So you lend some money or pay for the night, with the promise that you’ll get it back the next day. The thing is, tomorrow never comes with these kinds of people. You more than likely won’t be able to make contact with them for some time. 

The lines of communication may open again after a while where, amazingly, your old friend will see nothing wrong with breaking your trust. There may be some fabricated story to ‘account’ for his/her ‘disappearance’ — usually to do with a sick or dying grandmother. 

Whatever the case, they certainly won’t be in a position to repay you just yet. But they’ll have the money for you tomorrow. No worries. Sure aren’t you friends?

Gorgeous but dangerous — but worth it!

Now, you might say this kind of thing happens all over the world, and of course it does. But from anecdotal evidence and experience, it seems to be especially prevalent in Colombia. 

Ask the majority of ex-pats living here how many locals they rate as good, trustworthy friends and you’ll see plenty of heads being scratched. You can find them, of course, thankfully, but alas they are few and far between. 

In defence of this Colombian behaviour, it can be said that many of them are not as wealthy as Europeans or North Americans so trying to extract something monetary from people from these parts isn’t that bad. 

However, there are far poorer places in the world — Thailand or India for example — where the people are genuinely friendly for friendliness’ sake, no other reason. 

Or even take a look at countries closer to here. The locals in Chile — and also Peru — are sometimes described as being a little emotionally colder than Colombians. On first impressions, that may hold true. Yet, from what we’ve encountered, you can build up lasting, trustworthy friendships with the locals there — no strings attached.

On the relationship front, ‘getting into bed’, literally speaking, with Colombian women can be some experience, too. 

Things tend to go one of two ways. They will either be aloof with you for weeks on end, only contacting you as it suits them, as explained above, or else they’ll be all over you from the get-go, intensely so. 

That you are unable to devote every minute of your day to them is something they seemingly can’t understand. Whatever the case, it will be an emotional roller-coaster — that’s if you take it seriously. Best practice, however, is usually not to.

Of course, as we always like to point out here, there are some fine exceptions to all this that we have fortunately encountered — enough to allow Colombians to see themselves as a relatively friendly nation. But the friendliest? In classic school-report style, we have to say ‘could do better’. 

Then again, perhaps we all could.