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THE WORLD BANK has announced it will put $34 million into a program to provide coronavirus vaccines for more than two million people in Lebanon, which is experiencing a major surge in Covid-19 cases.
“This is the first World Bank-financed operation to fund the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines,” the Washington-based institution said in a statement.
Lebanon, a country of more than six million, has been logging some 5,500 cases a day since the start of the year, the Bank said.
It entered a strict 11-day lockdown last Thursday after recording a 70% uptick in infections in one of the steepest increases in transmission worldwide.
Under the World Bank plan, the vaccines would arrive by early February. It did not specify which lab it was partnering with.
The $34 million are being reallocated under the existing Lebanon Health Resilience Project, funded by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Beyond the human toll, the pandemic is exacerbating the economic crisis in Lebanon, the World Bank said.
The vaccine will go first to “priority groups”: high-risk health care workers, those over the age of 65, “epidemiological and surveillance staff,” and those aged 55-64 with underlying conditions.
“Fair, broad, and fast access to Covid-19 vaccines is critical to protecting lives and supporting economic recovery,” World Bank President David Malpass said.
“This is an important first operation and I look forward to continuing our support to many more countries in their vaccination efforts.”
The vaccination drive will be carried out in coordination with the Lebanese government, the statement read.
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What about Palestine? Israeli settlers are refusing to vaccinate Palestinians.
Propper apartheid regime not getting called out on our independent media for fear of offending israelis.
@Pádraig O’hEidhin: snap. Well said.
@Pádraig O’hEidhin: Why aren’t Palestinians vaccinating Palestinians?
@Pádraig O’hEidhin: That’s nonsense. What input would the settlers have in this vaccination program? None is the answer. Any Palestinian citizen of Israel is entitled to be vaccinated same as everyone else. The PA did not seek Israel’s help in the occupied territories and decided to do their own thing. They have signed up to Covax (WHO vax program) in order to supply the vaccine to the territories.
Dr Yasser Bozia, Palestinian Director-General for Public Health said: “We haven’t asked for any vaccine from Israel. It’s our responsibility to procure and roll-out the COVID vaccine and all other vaccines. That’s been the case going back years,”
(the above quote from Sky News)
So why do the PA and Hamas then turn around and vilify Israel? Because they realise the propaganda value of pretending Israel was leaving them high an dry.
@Contrary Mary:
@Will: Israel are blockading Palestine. Its their moral obligation to provide vaccines.
@Pádraig O’hEidhin: The Iseaeli health minister said that while he doeant accept it is their moral obligation, it was in their interests to expand their vaccination program into the Palestinian Territories. The Palestinians rejected it saying it was their own responsibility. I’m against most of the Israelis conduct in Palestine but the “boy who cried wolf” effect has major negative outcomes.
@Pádraig O’hEidhin: Moral obligation? That’s a laugh, nobody ever talks about the PA’s or Hamas’s moral obligation to their own people.
See quote from Palestinian Director General of Public Health above. They themselves seem to think it is their own responsibility.
The legal case is not clear cut. The 4th Geneva convention would place the onus on Israel, as an occupier, to provide the vaccine.
However, the Oslo accords place responsibility for health squarely on the shoulders of the PA or whichever Palestinian government is in place.
The PA have refused Israel’s help anyway so the subject is mute.
To then turn around and pretend that they have been stabbed in the back by Israel is dishonest but they know what they’re doing. Pure propaganda and easily debunked.
@Contrary Mary: Imagine being this disconnected from the World.
@Will: Hi Will, Palestine have ordered their own vaccines yes, but Palestine requested 20k doses from Israel to vaccinate their medical workers. Israel declined.
They could consider doing the same in Palestine.
Hopefully money doesn’t have to be paid back
@Keith Moore: it’s only paper..
I’m surprised Ireland hasn’t raised what’s happening in Palestine at the UN. America would veto any action against Israel but still ..
Why shouldn’t the people who print money when they need it bail everyone out?
The world needs a bailout right now.
A load of debts need to be canceled. Social welfare, housing, hospitals, their staff and many many more services need total reconstruction.
Across the world!
Banks in many respects if not all are the reason for the lack of money in the first place.
The world bank is no different.
So fair play to them for helping out but they could probably do a bit more before they deserve any praise.
Ps I know banks didn’t cause covid but they’re certainly the reason Irish people my age (35) hardly had a chance even before covid.
@Linus Robin: We need to bring back the biblical tradition of Jubilee. The terrible toll caused by unsustainable levels of debt on individuals and countries was very apparent to bronze age peoples but a mystery to us for some reason.
Even the currency we use is based on debt.
I hope the pandemic will bring this into sharp focus.
have your say