The Agreement: Recent Episodes
Patrick & Chelsea
Climate change, Donald Trump, privacy rights... The Agreement is a podcast about contemporary divisive issues where we discuss topics with individuals who may hold different views and different biases to our own.
If we are open to being challenged by perspectives we had not considered before, we will expand our knowledge, maybe learn something new and have more informed opinions.
Perhaps we will come to an agreement, perhaps we will disagree. Either way, we will disagree without being disagreeable!
Hosts: Patrick Browne and Chelsea Jaques
When it comes to Covid-19 and vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) keeps saying, "no one is safe until everyone is safe." While rich countries happily endorse this proposition, noble sentiments are not surviving the political reality of vaccine procurement.
COVAX - an initiative set up by the WHO, the Center for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and Gavi (the Vaccine Alliance) has secured 2 billion doses for 2021 and aims to have high-risk groups in every country vaccinated. Approximately 190 countries have signed on to COVAX which, in principal, was created to help middle and lower income countries with their immunization programs.
Unfortunately, for COVAX, their progress has been disrupted by wealthy countries making advance purchase agreements with drug companies, reserving much of the projected 2021 supply. Estimates suggest that low-income countries mightbe left waiting until 2023 or 2024 to secure enough vaccines to achieve herd immunity, delaying their recovery and return to the global economy, and giving the virus more time to mutate.
Even more upsetting is that a G-7 country, Canada, is expected to receive 1.9 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX this summer.
When faced with global issues, like a pandemic, should we not be acting collectively to mitigate our collective risk? In other words, should a frontline worker in Nigeria receive a vaccine prior to a 40 year old Silicon Valley CEO?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idINKBN27T1RS
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/corbella-covaccine-solution-was-right-here-in-calgary-while-trudeau-looked-to-china/wcm/376696a4-9f1d-49d6-9222-49c4c0fd851f/amp/
On January 20th, 2021, President Biden revoked the executive order permitting the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. What does this decision mean for environmental groups and Alberta's oil and gas industry? Resources: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-oil-exports-higher-imports-country-energy-independence-2020-9 https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/pipelines-are-safest-way-transport-oil-and-gas#:~:text=Both%20rail%20and%20pipelines%20are,equivalent%20transported%20than%20did%20rail https://www.osti.gov/pages/servlets/purl/1485127 https://www.capp.ca/energy/facts/ Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S., 2018. Science ↗ (https://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6380/1146.full)
Via: Ledger of Harms (https://ledger.humanetech.com/#study_122)
McGregor and Molyneux, 2018. Journal of Journalism ↗ (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1464884918802975)
Via: Ledger of Harms (https://ledger.humanetech.com/#study_131)