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# Vaccinated
- URL: https://werd.io/vaccinated/
- Published: 2021-05-14T16:09:18.000Z
- Updated: 2021-05-14T16:09:18.000Z
- Author: Ben Werdmuller
- Tags: #Import 2025-06-13 09:24

![](https://old.werd.io/file/609ea0a91f20de6e4a00e252)

I’m fully-vaccinated today: I got my second Pfizer jab two weeks ago. According to new guidance from the CDC, [I can go without a mask in most situations](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/13/world/covid-vaccine-coronavirus-cases#cdc-masks-guidance). The [official CDC page is really clear](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html), and reporting has been generally good. I feel safe - but [like many people](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-05-10/how-fauci-other-experts-feel-about-easing-mask-guidelines), I will still choose to wear one, even in situations where I am not required to, for a while.

A lot of people aren’t so lucky. In India, where I have friends and coworkers, everyone I speak to seems to have lost a friend or relative. [The official numbers woefully undercount the dead](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/world/asia/india-coronavirus-deaths.html): conservative estimates put it at twice the official number, and I’ve heard as high as ten times.

Broken medical supply chains have [left families to source oxygen for themselves](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/05/05/989461528/why-is-india-running-out-of-oxygen); even empty oxygen canisters, which can be refilled, are in short supply. My friend [Padmini Ray Murray](https://designbeku.in/who-we-are/padmini-ray-murray/) has set up [a COVID-19 and oxygen supply resource page for Bangalore](https://oxygenblr.in/), and is helping to [crowdsource oxygen availability in the region](https://twitter.com/Oxygenblr).

Meanwhile, [the United States has been hoarding vaccines](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/15/united-states-vaccine-sharing/), while [countries like India may not get vaccinated until 2023](https://www.vox.com/2021/4/28/22405279/covid-19-vaccine-india-covax). [COVAX](https://www.who.int/initiatives/act-accelerator/covax), a global vaccine initiative, [has been underfunded](https://www.devex.com/news/covax-facility-seeks-an-additional-2b-for-covid-19-vaccines-99671), and rich countries didn’t arm it with the vaccine supplies it needed. [Manufacturing capacity is bottlenecked.](https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-covid-19-agonies-highlight-growing-rich-poor-gap-in-vaccinations-11619542171) And even though [some countries (including, to its credit, the US) have agreed to waive vaccine patent rights](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57004302), the tests and technology transfers involved are *also* bottlenecked. More help is needed, and quickly; without meaningful assistance, vaccine waivers and COVAX pledges start to look more like PR for rich countries than an actual effort to vaccinate the world.

Some have argued that [vaccine patent waivers should not be issued](https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2021/05/05/covid-vaccine-patent-waiver/), because of the effect on innovation. I, and others, think [this falls squarely into the bucket of solvable problems](https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-arguments-against-sharing-covid-19-intellectual-property-dont-add-up-51620056595): information sharing mechanisms and economic incentives can be provided in other ways. The focus right now must be on saving lives, not saving capitalism.

It’s also common in a global crisis for the burden to be placed on individuals: in this case, [there are plenty of community fundraisers for COVAX](https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/donate). I’ve donated and, if you have the means, I recommend that you do too: [buying a single dose for someone in need costs $7](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-who-donation/donate-7-for-a-covid-19-vaccine-to-help-end-pandemic-who-urges-idUSKBN2CF1M0). But the focus should be on governments and large corporations to donate and help as much as they can; our focus should be at least as much on pressuring them to do the right thing as convincing our friends and neighbors to put some money in.

I have both friends and family who still don’t believe that COVID-19 is a real threat; who don’t trust the vaccine; who don’t believe in the science or the reporting. In the midst of a genuinely global crisis, not having the real-world effect of watching your friends and family succumbing to the disease is a kind of privilege. Elsewhere, they would not have the luxury of being so ignorant.

And I wouldn’t have the luxury of feeling the freedom I do today. I’m excited to be able to see my friends again; to travel; to eat at a restaurant; to gather and share and be social. I hope the whole world is able to share in this freedom. We are no more deserving than they are.

*Photo by [Spencer Davis](https://unsplash.com/@spencerbdavis?utm%5Fsource=unsplash&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/vaccinated?utm%5Fsource=unsplash&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcontent=creditCopyText)*