On these hot summer days, I remember my childhood again. My hometown Thanh Hoa, summer is very hot. In the summer, when listening to the radio station of the commune, it is 36-37 degrees, but every time the sun is shining, you sweat like a bath, even when eating, you have to beat the fan. The hot sun made when I woke up in the afternoon, the mat where I lay was also dark because of sweat. On windy days, the trees are shaking because of the sun, sitting in the house looking out into the field, seeing the steam keep rising. So, almost everyone has a few or three mo fans, a type of fan made from the stem of areca leaves, also known as mo areca. This stalk hugs the tree trunk, after growing old, it falls down and is cut into a rectangle larger than the A4 paper now, at the bottom, it is folded to make it convenient to hold, easy to control and fan. . That fragrant, fragrant fan has put my childhood to sleep. Later, there were spokes fans, made of young or thin cork and knitted together, but often damaged quickly. The heat of the homeland made every house close at noon and rest quietly, our children were “bitten” by the rash all day long, their limbs were thick with red “bite” spots. When you grow up a little, just wait for the adults to sleep, then gently open the door to hide and play, play football with friends on the street. It wasn’t until later when I grew up that I bought an electric fan at home. At that time people kept calling it Lotus Fan, even though it wasn’t like that. People in the countryside, just call it that, just like motorbikes call it Honda. That simple item is the dream of many homes. At first, only wealthy families could afford it. Perhaps because of the sun and wind, my hometown doesn’t have the custom of having a real Korean New Year as much as other regions in the North. When I was a child, I hardly knew about the vegetarian cake. I don’t know if it’s because of the difficult economic conditions or the customs of my hometown. But on the contrary, the Lunar New Year, the 5th day of the 5th lunar month, my hometown does it quite loudly. Almost every house has dishes such as millet tea, sticky rice, dried fish, and wine. At the market in those days, they also sold a lot of Voi leaves. The women bought them to dry and drink them. Perhaps the climate and nature also affect the lifestyle, customs and habits of each region. Despite the geographical distance, my hometown and Hanoi and neighboring provinces are not far apart. Life has changed a lot now, few people still work in the fields or depend entirely on the fields. Therefore, the impact of nature and extreme weather on the lives of people in my hometown is not as much as before. I’ve noticed that many homes have air conditioning installed. But the feeling of hometown sunshine, the feeling of gardens and fish ponds and its peace in the soul of the country people are still the same. The countryside sunshine in my memory, even though it is harsh but easy to breathe, is clean and sunny, but it cools down quickly, not hot like the streets of Hanoi. The rustic love in the countryside Summer noon calls each other to tingle green tea Yesterday I asked my daughter what she learned today, learned something new compared to yesterday. He said he hasn’t read much today, so I encourage him to find out when, where, and who made the air conditioner. It looks and shows from the beginning of the 20th century, with information about the inventor, the year of invention, the development process. I seem to be getting old, so in the past, when I heard or read something, I remembered it clearly, but now I quickly forget it. I just remember commenting back to my son: then the richest people in the world like Rockefeller probably wouldn’t have air conditioners to use, most of their lives would have to be by train, not by machine. fly. It’s the era of science and technology, I’m happier than him. My daughter seems to enjoy that comparison. I’ve only just said that, and the next thought that comes to me about each era and every aftertaste of life and I can’t say who feels happier and more comfortable than anyone, I have not shared with my children. Let your child’s awareness develop a little more. Homeland has the poetic, the love of the countryside; The street has its own charm, the beauty of the street. Contemplating a little in the hot sunny day and COVID sitting working from home and sharing with each other in the age of Facebook is also beautiful. Today’s experiences will eventually go down in human history, celebrating human life; and certainly, its interesting, only experienced people can see to appreciate and share. 2/6/2021

The effectiveness of the vaccine so far cannot be denied. The United States, although not widely open to the world, has dragged down its number of infections in just the past few months. Based on data collected during vaccination, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that the effectiveness of major vaccines such as Pfizer or Moderna is up to 95%. even with new variants. This makes it possible for American people to comfortably go out without having to wear a mask, while the US Government considers lifting the ban on international movement. Similar effects have also been observed in Israel and Europe, where vaccination rates have reached 60% – that is, herd immunity can be generated. The “miracle” that brought life back to its normal rhythm seemed to be at last. Small doses of vaccines are becoming the hope of the whole world in the fight against COVID. However, at the same time, a new wave of infections broke out in India. Since mid-April, an additional 5 million new infections have been recorded in this South Asian country. The number of new infections continuously reached approximately 300 thousand cases per day, of which several thousand people died from the disease every day. The epidemic tsunami was so great that it knocked down India’s health system in just a few days, a real disaster. It is hard to believe, until the 4th wave of infections broke out, India was the country with the 3rd highest number of COVID vaccines in the world and was a hope for the whole world thanks to its huge vaccine supply. However, the number of nearly 100 million doses of vaccine administered out of a population of 1.3 billion is still too small to achieve a state of herd immunity, as epidemiologists hope. The government’s subjectivity then caused the contagion to erupt violently at a time when major religious ceremonies were held in this huge country. Consequences for the people and country of India so far have not been fully enumerated, but more dangerous, it is slowing down the whole world’s efforts to open up, when the supply of vaccines is mainly for people. Poor countries under the WHO COVAX program have stalled, because India has urgently applied a ban on vaccine exports to save itself first. In addition, the fourth wave of infections has also begun to spread around the world, from Asia, Africa to South America, where vaccination rates are far from reaching the thresholds that can create health problems. herd immunity. No one can stand alone The Indians cannot be blamed for the decision to close the vaccine supply at this time, because indeed the images and death figures every day in the newspaper make anyone horrified. Before that, it was India that took the lead in efforts to help the poorer people to have access to 66 million doses of vaccine in the first quarter of this year. Now that responsibility needs to be reinforced. In contrast, the US, UK, EU and Israel have come up with plans to reopen. Learning from India’s mistakes, these countries have been more cautious. From May 23, tourists can return to Israel and the EU if they comply with the mandatory conditions. The problem is that if that rule is followed, there are not many qualified guests. Because, in addition to having received the correct vaccines recognized by the EU, that traveler must also be from countries with the number of new infections below 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the previous 14 days. Those are the countries that the EU calls “safe”. However, there are currently only 7 countries outside the EU that meet this criterion, such as Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc., but that list does not include the US. That is, the invitation to travel to Europe is still only “give it up”. The door was opened but very few people could enter. The “Indian lesson” makes us realize that vaccination speed will determine the success or failure of a global vaccine strategy. As the United States and Israel quickly immunized the majority of the population, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was easily defeated. But, the drip vaccination rate will not be enough to create herd immunity and even allow the virus to mutate against the same old vaccines. Finding a vaccine for the poor is never easy. The fourth wave of contagion, therefore, has broken out in these very countries, with new variants that are more dangerous and could completely hit countries that already have high vaccination rates. Therefore, in order to solve the problem at the root, it is the rich countries that will have to take the lead in a new effort, to rescue the worldwide shortage of vaccines. Conflicts of interest A group of 13 countries has been identified by the World Bank (WB) as holding control and global distribution of vaccines. Among these, there are of course big countries like India, China, Russia, the G7 group and a few other European countries like Austria, Switzerland, Sweden. They are collectively known with a beautiful name, “The Club of Vaccine Producing Countries”. This club controls up to 88% of vaccines and 91% of vaccine companies in the world. Among them, mainly developed countries in the West. It is not surprising that the US and EU have achieved the highest vaccination rates in the world in a short time. Despite earlier claims to share vaccines with the world, “vaccine nationalism” prevailed initially. They have even started to have an oversupply of vaccine in their inventory after the last 3 months of intense vaccination. Therefore, when making the call for the rescue of vaccines in the world, both WHO and the United Nations are directly targeting this group of countries. Now it’s time for them to extend their hand to play the role of “saving the world”. However, this is also the time when the controversy broke out the most. The US has announced that it will deliver 70 million doses of its vaccine to developing countries between now and July. The EU will also contribute back to the COVAX program, after a temporary withdrawal to keep the vaccine for itself. But, even so, it’s still not enough. Because the most advanced vaccines being used by the US and EU require extremely complex preservation technologies that are not easy for poor or developing countries to meet. In Africa, hundreds of thousands of doses of vaccines have been destroyed, even though they still have their expiry date, because they cannot guarantee the storage conditions on the way to users. This situation may be even more serious, when the number of vaccines from the EU and the US is brought in in large numbers in the near future. And the cost of high-end vaccines like Pfizer or Moderna is never cheap, when Pfizer – BioNtech or Moderna apply the most advanced technologies that not even Russia or China have access to. A new call has been made, for rich countries to share vaccine copyrights with poor countries, in order to create a vaccine that suits them. However, advanced genetic technologies are copyrighted by major pharmaceutical companies, where they want to hold the secret not only for this COVID vaccine. As a result, the controversy has shifted from the states to the people of the vaccine-hungry poor countries, with the wealthy owners of the big pharmaceutical companies. Loss of motivation to research to find new products is the reason that big pharmaceutical companies rely on to protect their patents. Meanwhile, inequality in vaccine distribution has serious consequences for the lives of hundreds of millions of other people. Still, it wasn’t easy for those wealthy owners to give in. Therefore, before relying on the “kindness” of pharmaceutical companies, the most concrete thing that rich countries can do is probably just to try to fill this inequality by giving poor countries the opportunity to do so. access to their starting surplus vaccine resources. Saving people is actually saving yourself.
Tu Uyen