March 11, 2021 marked the first anniversary of World Health Organization’s proclamation of Covid-19 as a global pandemic. Coincidentally, this was the day that my 84-year old father got his first shot of the Pfizer vaccine. I did not expect to be emotional when we were lining up across various checkpoints. When the doctors, nurses and other medical staff were all congratulating us and saying words like … “Finally, we’re here…”, “The wait is over…”, it truly made me reflect how far we’ve come in combatting this virus. That moment made me realize as well how much we’ve lost and how we adapted to live in this new normal. We are blessed and grateful to be able to avail of this vaccination for free and in an organized manner in Canada. We recognize that not everyone has the same opportunity as countries struggle to purchase and avail of the scarce supply of these vaccines.
Pfizer (US) - BioNTech (Germany) was the first to announce successful clinical trials and rolled out approvals from health authorities of various governments that are ordering from them. Few weeks later, Moderna (US) released its own at a much favorable storage condition. Both claim an efficacy rate of 95%. Immediately, we saw reports of developed countries ordering in advance from both companies. There were also controversies of nationalism as US or EU would want to prioritize their own constituents before releasing to other countries.
The other vaccines that followed were Oxford-AstraZeneca (United Kingdom-Sweden) 70%; Johnson&Johnson (US) 66%; Sputnik (Russia) 91%; Sinovac Biotech (China) varies from 50 – 91%; Novavax (US) 89%; CanSino Biologics (China) 65%; Covaxin (India) 81%. At the time of this writing, the top 10 countries with vaccinations administered per 100 people are Israel, United Arab Emirates, Chile, United Kingdom, Bahrain, United States, Serbia, Hungary, Qatar, and Morocco. 17th in the list is Canada. Sadly, my birth country Philippines is far down the list.
Disparity among the rich, influential, and poor countries has been evident in gaining access to these vaccinations. The rich countries can manufacture their own and make advance mass orders of vaccines with higher efficacy rates. They have the money and the means to do so. The poor countries have to wait on aid or contend with more affordable options that would mean lower efficacy rates. Developed countries can take months to a year to fully vaccinate their citizens versus years most likely for underdeveloped countries. I would imagine the top 1-2% wealthy families even from poor countries can have under the table arrangements to get hold of these medications ahead of time.
As I ponder on these inequalities, I can’t help but praise God because there is no such discrimination in His Kingdom. His grace, His love, His salvation, His mercy, His joy, His peace, His faithfulness, and all good things are of unlimited supply. The best part is that we don’t have to earn it, we don’t have to work hard for it, we don’t have to reserve or pay for it. He only needs our acceptance of this gift through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We recall the story of the Samaritan woman and her encounter with the Saviour. Jesus did not disregard her because of her questionable background – having had 5 husbands and currently living with someone not her husband. More so, she is a Samaritan who at that time, regarded scandalous for a Jew to be interacting with. The circumstance of the meeting was near a well where Jesus rested and requested from this woman a drink of water. This was appointed and the act even made Jesus’ declaration more impactful. “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” – John 4:13-14. The astonishing part was in a few verses further down the chapter when the woman said in verse 25, “I know the Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” In verse 26, Jesus replied, “I, the one speaking to you – I am he.” This was known to be the first, direct and explicit messianic claim from Jesus and it was not reserved for kings, high ranking officials, wealthy, privileged people but to someone who in our culture/society, we would deem someone insignificant. She believed, was transformed, and out of her joy, spread this good news of salvation to others.
You and I are never insignificant in God’s eyes. In His Kingdom, we will never be lacking but enjoy an unending source of all good things. Believe and be a part of His Kingdom today.
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Sources on vaccine information:
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