We will witness that “ethics”—which goes back thousands of years—will become a hot topic in the coming days! Debates over vaccines that make you immune to Covid-19 makes you think like this. When we get to the bottom of the issue, we face the fact that things aren’t just about coronavirus.
First, let’s take a short trip down our recent past, shall we?
In the early 1960s, there had been interesting developments in Sweden. Indeed, Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin developed the plastic shopping bag, one of the biggest actors in environmental pollution today. He patented it in 1965 and called it “Celloplast”. Claiming himself to be an environmentalist, his intention was very innocent: bags are planet-friendly. Until that point, people used paper bags. Thulin viewed that as “trees being slaughtered”. Instead, he proposed to save millions of trees by encouraging everyone to use multi-use bags that were durable, and portable in pockets.
He became a role model and encouraged everyone to jump on the bag bandwagon. The world liked, accepted, and supported the idea. The result, however, was obvious: Americans consume more than 100 billion plastic per year alone. 12 million barrels of fossil fuel go into those bags as energy resource.
Aren’t we the ones who pollute the planet by putting plastic bag producers in the target board? Don’t we feel even slightly guilty for every plastic bag we consume?
Disreputability and the Nobel Prize!
“DDT, a colorless and odorless chemical, was first synthesized in 1874. People began using it on a mass basis in 1939 after Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller discovered that it made for a good insecticide. DDT contributed to the prevention of malaria and typhus during World War II and earned Müller the 1948 Nobel Prize.
The glory days of DDT came to an end in the 1960s. American biologist Rachel Carson discovered that DDT harms not only insects, but also virtually all other lifeforms, especially birds. She wrote her findings in her book, Silent Spring. Others later questioned how DDT indirectly affects human health and had carcinogenic effects.
When people realized that DDT did more harm than good, governments began banning its use in agriculture. It was first banned in Hungary 1968, followed by the US in 1972, and Germany in 1984. The Turkish government banned DDT in 1987. However, it could only enforce the ban from the 2000s onwards.”
The result is obvious: Science explains that years of “DDT-fed” agricultural lands and waters is behind the global explosion in cancer today.
We didn’t dare face this reality and raise our voice when we consumed these products! We are now equally careless about Genetically Modified Organisms.
The CEOs of the world’s largest cigarette manufacturers testified under oath at the US Congress in 1994 that “smoking is not harmful to health”, despite the fact that scientists have been publishing studies on the harmful effects of nicotine since the 1950s.
We did not take scientific data seriously. We stuffed one “spare” cigarette behind our ears, and lit another whilst watching developments unfolding before our eyes. No one called the liars into account either.
Plant-based Hamburgers!
Many of us love and consume meat. Here’s a newspaper clipping about how meat production has turned from farming practices to industry:
“Research shows us that raising livestock is the source of at least 15% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. This rate is higher than greenhouse gas emissions caused by air and land traffic combined. Our consumption of animals causes methane gas to be released into the atmosphere. Fertilizer production releases CO2 too!
Animal waste pollutes nature and water. Let’s not forget how raising, transporting and distributing animals has damaged the environment as well.
Meat production is closely related to water consumption: In order produce 500 grams of cow meat, you need to use 7,000 liters of water. That rate is 10 times higher than that what you need for wheat and rice.”
Plant-based “meat production” has become a widespread phenomenon in recent years. Even certain hamburger chains like McDonalds and Burger King have added plant-based food to their menus. Regardless, our freezers are full of all kinds of meat products!
The number of deaths from obesity has exceeded the number of deaths due to starvation!
“According to a study published in the Lancet medical journal; more than 3 million people died in 2010 from diseases caused by being overweight.
That is triple number of those who had died from starvation that same the same year.
Diabetes, cancer, and heart disease are becoming widespread in countries where you never would have encountered them before.
Figures have increased since 1990 (46.5 million people died from obesity), but the overall health of the world’s population is better off than it was 20 years ago, according to the study.
The study also states that heart disease and cerebral hemorrhages cause one in every four deaths. Diabetes causes 1.3 million deaths.”
Pharmaceutical companies that produce and market drugs for obesity-related diseases (e.g. high cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes) don’t exactly have the best reputation… That said, we all have become an integral part of the world of obesity as we don’t even let close to a billion people going to sleep every night on an empty stomach in our dreams. For whatever reason, we don’t question “why drugs developed to treat certain diseases don’t reach patients”.
Some problems feed off of the same virus. We’re going through a century where ethical and moral values have been swept under the carpet.
From Enron to Madoff, from Lehman Brothers to rating agencies, Companies that give credit scores to bankrupt companies, have changed the world’s financial trajectory. They’ve left millions of people homeless, unemployed, and “with no future”. Of those, all but Madoff are sitting at the table next to you in a restaurant grinning like a Cheshire cat.
In a world entangled in technology and artificial intelligence—where tens of thousands of cameras surround us and there is no such thing as privacy—we need to ask ourselves, what ethics/morals we are talking about?
Can there be an “ethics” vaccine for humanity?
More than 50 million people have been infected with “Covid-19” virus. The number of those who’ve died from Covid-19 is on the verge of 1.5 million people. But there is good news. We are witnessing positive results in the area of vaccines. “Hope” appears to be on the horizon.
It looks like…
Weariness…
Desperation…
Pessimism…
Confusion…
And chaos…
are going to leave us be.
Two Turkish scientists have made us proud in the vaccine developing process. BionTech (owned by Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci) has made an important scientific discovery. Their company operates in 60 countries. They work with more than 1,300 scientists.
However, we have critical questions we need to answer following these positive developments:
How will vaccines be distributed?
Who will be given priority?
How much will they cost?
Is there cold chain?
How many times will we have to be vaccinated?
When will poor countries be vaccinated?
Can societies’ loss of trust in governments be compensated for?
In short, how will the “ethical” rules of health care systems work?
In 2020, Covid-19 has been turning into coronachaos. We’ll surely pay for not adopting the even the simplest of safeguards — masks and social distancing — for many years to come.
Humanity is going/will go through a test!
About vaccines, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that member states (except for the US) have signed declarations for such cases. If they follow these declarations, the vaccination process will be fair for everyone. The first to be vaccinated: health professionals, the elderly (in nursing homes), and people at high risk for disease according to the declarations that have been updated due to coronavirus. The world’s leading health organizations and universities are currently presenting their views on vaccine studies and questioning the “ethical” dimension of everything.
In this case, people “transparency” (which explains how the system works, “inclusiveness” (participation of every relevant organization and person in the decision-making process), “consistent” decisions for everyone (without favoritism and abuse), and “accountability” for justice and equity.
The ethical issue about coronavirus actually smacks us harshly in other areas of life.
Unfortunately, there is no “vaccine” to protect us from them!
Bribery, corruption, and abuse, for example… Home-delivery tender regulations, legalization of money laundering, and that racial discrimination are still agenda items after thousands of years. Scientists need to discover “vaccinations” for them. Let’s not forget about “zoning amnesties” either!
Doesn’t democracy need a vaccination?
The global agenda longs to create a universal democratic society. Can we really talk about “democracy” in a world that uses chaos and fake ballots to turn life upside down, especially considering the street strikes against election results in the last 10 years? We’ve all seen the so-called “democratic processes” in Belarus, Congo, New Guinea and the Ivory Coast in recent weeks on TV…
Then there’s the US. It spent over $14 billion on the last election, marking the most expensive election campaign in the world.
Dictators who take power through democracy “dislike” democracy, even though they owe their power to it! Some go as far as to “re-invent democracy”!
Humanity actually needs an “ethics and morality” vaccine.
Maybe Covid 19 will teach us that!
My article from the December 2020 issue of BrandMap: Which vaccine and for what? You can read the published version here at BM41-SK.
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