The Process of Distributing COVID Vaccines in Palestine

- In general, when one considers the title of this post, what comes to mind is what we know about the accepted protocol that stipulates the ship’s captain, or the aircraft’s pilot, is the last to leave...!, in the event of sinking or crash or fire, after he has performed his duty faithfully and taken responsibility for distributing lifejackets and securing lifeboats for that rescue...!

- We recall on this occasion what we read in the pages of history books about a British naval ship that sank off the coast of Africa in 1852, and shortly before signs of imminent sinking, the ship’s captain immediately ordered all the women and children on board to prepare to leave the ship and board the lifeboats, and until the captain was assured of their arrival to safe shore, he and some of his crew remained on the ship until it sank, and perished with it.!..

- These ethics and codes of conduct, the custom that became a moral obligation to be carried out in disasters... we saw such behavior in the famous film Titanic, which sank as is known, in the year 1012, and how we saw in the events of the film, which was said to be based on real events..!, how the captain and the men acted before the sinking, in terms of giving priority to saving women, children and the elderly in lifeboats, before it was made available to the men. And we saw that some men objected to the priority given to women boarding the lifeboats, and refused to carry out these orders, so the captain and his assistants opened fire on them!

- The same occurs in airplane incidents; for example, in an incident that happened with a flight from New York Airport to Charlotte Airport in North Carolina, in January 2009, where the plane on that flight crashed near the Hudson River, and hundreds of passengers on board survived, the captain, his assistants and the aircraft’s navigators evacuated the aircraft of passengers in an orderly fashion, and when that was done, the captain searched the plane twice to make sure no one remained on board, so that he would be the last to leave the aircraft wreck..!

- I wonder..? Did the captain of the sinking ship, or the pilot of the crashed plane, think of distributing lifejackets and securing lifeboats for themselves and for their families and friends and acquaintances..!...before securing women and children and the elderly..! Certainly that did not happen.... Rather, they gave priority to women and the elderly..and the children....before thinking of themselves.!!.

· Are we OK?? In this regard, we feel sorrow and grief and pain and anger at reports from civil society organizations and some individuals in Palestine indicating that officials allowed some of the vaccines in the possession of the Palestinian Ministry of Health to be distributed to some institutions and bodies, and some senior employees therein, and some of the powerful and their families and friends..!!.. If such information reported by those who convey it is correct, it would be an irresponsible act, harmful to Palestinian society and to public responsibility therein, especially as there are instructions from the World Health Organization and from officials at the Palestinian Ministry of Health regarding codes of conduct in distributing such vaccines, such that medical crews who work in injecting and treating patients are to be vaccinated first, then the elderly and patients with chronic diseases....as the first priority... according to priority criteria and each person’s turn regardless of his job or influence..or his family..since citizens in Palestine are equal,...especially amid the spread of the pandemic...!

· Exercising public responsibility must be characterized by full justice and transparency; tampering with people’s lives, health and safety is a sensitive and dangerous matter...!

· Failure to take sound decisions in distributing the vaccines, if information about leakage of some vaccines from the Ministry of Health to ministries far from the medical and nursing scene is confirmed, and some families and some powerful individuals obtained quantities of vaccines and treated vaccines as privileges and a monopoly for a certain class, and displayed ego, exclusivity and boastfulness about the ability to obtain vaccines exclusively... is disgraceful and irresponsible, and such serious matters must be investigated and the perpetrators held accountable...!

· Vaccines are not privileges to be distributed to a handful of people; this is a global battle against disease, and there are standards and bases for treating the disease..!

· The occurrence of such things unravels the bonds of solidarity and undermines trust in the fabric of the local community and in public responsibility, and weakens the rallying around those public officials who perform their duties responsibly and fairly, and who deserve praise. They are numerous..!

· In my view, there are two parties that should be blamed and held accountable if violations in vaccine distribution are confirmed...! They are the citizen who obtained the vaccine without right and allowed himself to violate others’ turn and exerted pressure through his influence in all forms on the person responsible for the vaccines (who is the second culpable party), and made that official negligent and corrupt....! The citizen paved the way for this type of corruption... in such circumstances, where pandemics and health disasters roam...!

· Therefore, as citizens we must not help create an environment in which corruption thrives, and our culture must be homogeneous and agreed on the rule of law and order according to rules of transparency and justice and the public interest of society, so that the cells of corruption in public work neither grow nor multiply, nor find anyone to nourish them...!

· Date: 5-3-2021