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“While wealthy countries rush to vaccinate their populations against COVID-19, 130 of the World's poorest countries have not received a single dose of vaccine. Frontline medical workers in Zimbabwe are dying for lack of protection, while “lawmakers” and hospital administrators in the United States cut to the front of the line. Israel is vaccinating its entire population while ignoring the needs of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation for over half a century.

“I think I'll pass on getting vaccinated. Send my vaccine to Zimbabwe or Palestine instead.”

“The trouble with passing on your vaccination is that it's not really yours. You can't pass it on to Palestine or Zimbabwe or anyplace else for that matter. In fact, if you don't take it when it's your turn, it may just go bad and be thrown away. Also, you just might get COVID and be put in a hospital, taking up space that somebody else might need for an unrelated matter. And then who would write the Rolla Peace News? So I urge you to please take it.”

“you have packed so much into this week's edition. The Heart of Darkness quotes (I remember the first one). The Over the Edge Piece which was profoundly moving and left me searching to learn more about Afghanistan. The statistics on where our vaccines are going, a new perspective I hadn't yet heard but which does impact whether I would want to get the vaccine. I appreciate the wisdom you share, Yusha, thank you. Wishing you well this evening.”

1. I'll probably only be around for a few more years at most. Seems a shame to waste scarce vaccine on giving someone who sleeps most of the day a possible year or two more of life. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to my daughter and son-in-law who are raising four children, one less than six-months-old?

2. I have a home where I can shelter-in-place and not spread disease among the general population. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to a homeless person or a prison inmate who can't shelter-in-place?

3. I rarely go out and when I do I am double-masked and come in contact with few people. Wouldn't it be better to give “my vaccine” to a pre-school or kindergarten teacher who comes in close contact with twenty children five days a week for seven hours a day?

4. With so many people, so much more needy than I am, in so many corners of the world, I would feel like an accomplice, if I accepted scarce vaccine from the same system that denies that same vaccine to those most in need.