Unquestionably, the greatest catastrophe to befall mankind in the twenty-first century was the Covid-19 pandemic, which raged across continents, sparing no one, leaving no corner of the globe untouched. Hence, the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in South-East Asia, particularly Singapore and Hong Kong, and the rise in Covid-19 cases in Thailand and China ~ the source of the first Covid-19 wave in 2020 ~ has epidemiologists worried the world over. The rise in Covid-19 cases across Asia, even during summer months, may not herald another wave of the pandemic but the current outbreak does show that Covid-19 is not done and dusted ~ the virus is alive and kicking, and mutating to newer forms.

The disadvantaged bore the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic; almost 40 per cent of Covid deaths in the US were reported from residential institutions housing the old and disabled. Ill thought-out policies like nationwide lockouts worsened existing inequalities, hitting the poorest of the poor especially hard. Stagnating industrial production and disruptions to global trade caused by the pandemic resulted in world-wide galloping inflation, and worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war. According to World Food Programme (WFP) estimates, the spike in food and fuel prices resulted in 345 million people experiencing food insecurity in 2021 ~ more than double the pre-pandemic number.

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Sadly, during such difficult times, the added economic strain from the pandemic forced cash-strapped Governments to cut spending on public welfare and public services, like health and education. According to WHO, the Covid-19 pandemic that ravaged the planet for almost three years, infected more than 750 million people, resulting in more than 6.8 million deaths. However, the pandemic was God’s own gift for certain categories of corporations; pharmaceutical companies that manufactured vaccines and related products for Covid19; technology giants offering work from home; and online retailers supplying lockdown necessities. Pharmaceutical companies developed lifesaving Covid-19 vaccines and associated health products with massive amounts of public money but refused to share their knowledge and technology with the world, putting profit over human lives.

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Peoples’ Vaccine Alliance, a coalition of over one hundred organisations working for equitable access to medical technologies, estimated that the companies........

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