International

World News. 9^th March
International Women’s Day 8^th March – we just missed it but there is a lot to say.  As well as the thousands of women doctors and nurses, and all the heads of the public health and social care, there are senior advisers in England and Scotland who help the Government.  One is Professor Sharon Peacock.  She is director of the Covid Genomics Group.  They work on finding the internal structure of the virus – the tiny microscopic parts – you see diagrams on TV.    She says she has about 55 Zoom calls a week;  some days she starts work at 4am.  She usually finishes at 7pm … but that is seven days a week.  Nobody in her family went to University.  She took cookery and needlework at school.  She had to take GCSE and A-levels in evening class.  She became a nurse and it took her many years before a University accepted her to train as a doctor.  Now she has a key job in our health system in the fight against the virus.
Worse and worse in Myanmar.  The army is shooting to kill protesters.  In some cities, they have taken over the hospitals.  They try to stop the doctors from helping people who are injured by the army.  They want to take away injured protesters to army hospitals.  A senior adviser to the leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi, was arrested and is now dead.  The people say he was tortured and beaten by the army.
It is fantastic that people are having the virus.  Great(?) that big companies are getting paid for it.  Pfizer charges more than £22 for the doses.  They will be paid over $20 billion this year.  Moderna vaccine will receive over $18 billion.  Astra Zeneca sell the vaccine for no profit.  They will receive about $2 billion this year.   OK for some companies.