EDITORIAL: NEW PLAN TO BOOST AFRICA’S VACCINE CAPACITY LAUDABLE
On the second page of our edition yesterday, we published an article with the headline “Fresh hope on Africa’s capacity to manufacture Covid vaccines”.
This was with regard to the ongoing frenzied efforts across the wider world at producing a vaccine (or vaccines) which would have a profound antigen effect against Covid-19.
First reported in the Wuhan City of the Hubei Province in the People’s Republic of China in late 2019, the pandemic’s mutating new coronavirus continues to ravage much of the world more than a year later – and with nary an end in sight.
Hence the dire need to urgently produce in the name of ‘vaccine’ a substance which could/would be used to stimulate the production of antibodies in humans, using the causative agent of the disease in question, its products or a synthetic substitute.
If nothing else, this would specifically provide immunity against the Covid-19 malady – but without having an adverse impact on the person being vaccinated.
To that very noble end, the Summit of France and African Heads of State on Africa Financing which recently ended in Paris, France, “agreed to develop local manufacturing capacity for Covid-19 vaccines in Africa...”
This is especially because it is now considered that manufacturing a Covid-19 vaccine in Africa, by Africans and for Africans would have a significant positive impact on Africans – this especially from the point of view of the people’s attitude, steeped as they are in African culture and traditions.
Equally significant was the summit’s consensus that “solving the (coronavirus) pandemic remains a top priority, and is in the global public good”.
The summit participants committed themselves to “standing united” and ensure equitable access in Africa to safe, functional and affordable vaccines, diagnostics and treatment of the pandemic.
How comforting to know this, we unhesitatingly say, and urge the authorities and other relevant institutions to get it all done apace.
Bolster domestic tea auction
May 21 is commemorated worldwide as International Tea Day, so-proclaimed by the United Nations in recognition of the commodity’s contribution to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). According to the UN, tea production, processing and consumption contributes to the reduction of extreme poverty (SDG-1); the fight against hunger (SDG-2), the empowerment of women (SDG-5), and the sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems (SDG-15).
All in all, the International Tea Day (ITD) aims to draw the attention of governments and their citizens across the world to the positive impact of the global tea trade on growers, consumers and workers in general. It is noteworthy that Tanzania is among the world’s 11 major tea-growing countries – the others being Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Vietnam, named here in alphabetical order.
It was only last year that International Tea Day was first observed. In this second year of observing ITD, we call upon the government to bolster the domestic tea auction system apace for increased benefits all-round.
