Experts have said that coronavirus passports are feasible, but governments have a series of criteria they must meet before they introduce them. Professor Melinda Mills, director of the Leverhulme Centre for demographic science at Oxford University and lead author of the report said 12 criteria should be met before the vaccine passports are introduced. This includes the requirement of authorities to “clearly define” how they will be used to avoid discrimination.

Professor Mills said: “How would a vaccine passport certificate be used? Will it be for international travel? Medical uses, for getting a job, attending a football match, or buying some milk? It’s these kinds of questions.”

The authors of the report have expressed their concerns that a wider discussion around vaccine passports needs to take place before the documents are issued. This includes the need for legal standards and conversations around data privacy. One of the 12 criteria outlined in the report states passports if used for overseas travel must be internationally standardised, have verifiable credentials, meet legal and ethical standards, particularly around guarding against discrimination.

Should you be hopeful of international travel by the summer? 

Not entirely. 

Professor Christopher Dye, another author of the report echoes professor Mill’s comments that the system is feasible, but we need to keep in mind that despite the progress we have made, we are not there yet. Dye says: “At the most basic level, we are still gathering data on exactly how effective each vaccine is in preventing infection and transmission and non how long the immunity will last.”

However, the Greek tourism minister said yesterday that the Greek government has entered preliminary discussions with the UK government over a potential travel agreement for Britons who have been vaccinated. Haris Theoharis suggested the vaccine passport scheme could allow travel between the UK and Greece. Theoharis’ reasoning is that: “we don’t want to limit travel to those who have been vaccinated of course, but since we are mandating that before travelling someone has to have a negative test result, this is a waste of resources if people are vaccinated.”

Economically this is very important for the Greek economy, as nearly 4 million Brits travel to Greece every year making Britain one of the country’s most important tourism markets. Tourism accounts for more than 20% of the country’s GDP, and the government hopes to revive the tourism sector by June. Their current travel system demands that all arrivals have to present a negative Covid test within a 72-hour window, and arrivals from the UK have to take a rapid test on arrival. The implementation of Covid passports would save a significant amount of time and resources for the country and allow for their economy to pick up again.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be announcing his plans for easing lockdown on 22nd February, it is suspected the issue of international travel and summer holidays will be addressed in this speech after facing pressure from the tourism industry and lockdown sceptics. Johnson says that vaccine passports are “very much in the mix down the road” in terms of foreign travel, but Brits would not need them to travel domestically.

The PM’s current attitudes to the matter seem very wishy-washy, as he says he is optimistic about the prospect of summer holidays returning to normal yet warned last week that the public should not get their hopes up of a holiday, even in the UK, let alone abroad, until lockdown lifting plans have been announced. The upcoming weeks, lockdown lifting plans and vaccine rollout progression will be the true tale of whether vaccine passports will be something we see by summer 2021.

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As of current statistics, more than 18.5 million doses of the vaccine, a combination of first and second doses, have been given to those living in the EU. The UK is the leader in vaccine rollout with 21 million doses per 100 people followed by the US at 14 million and then the EU sits behind them at 4.4 million doses. Germany has been criticised for lagging behind other countries where only 3.8 mullion doses have been administered by the 11th of February.

President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen has admitted to the faults in the vaccine procurement and has promised more transparency going forward. Von der Leyen says: “We were late in getting approval, we were too optimistic about mass production, and perhaps we were too sure that the orders would be delivered on time,” as well as defending the united front on vaccine orders, rather than letting individual states negotiate their own deals.

Officials say that a surge in production and deliveries later down the line will make up for the current delays, with French president Emmanuel Macron promising a vaccine for any adult who wants one by the end of the summer and German chancellor Angela Merkel promising the same in September.

The EU vaccination program set up in June 2020 allowed the EU to negotiate the purchasing of vaccines on behalf of its member states. This method was chosen as it says it can reduce costs and avoid competition between EU states. The scheme was optional, yet all 27 EU countries joined the scheme. This does not prevent them from making their deals with vaccine producers that are not in the EU’s agreement, for example, Hungary has agreed to buy 2 million doses of the Russian, Sputnik-V vaccine.

The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine was approved for use in the EU on January 29th, 2021. The EU signed a deal for 300 million doses in August, whilst the UK ordered 100 million doses and had its deal signed in May. AstraZeneca is of notable mention due to its problems around supply, where they blamed it on manufacturing issues at two plants in Belgium and the Netherlands. This meant a reduction in supplies available to the EU by 60% in the first quarter of 2021.

Conflict arose over the UK receiving its doses on time compared to the EU which had to wait due to who signed their contracts first. AstraZeneca said that because the EU signed contracts later it left less time for them to sort out problems in the EU supply chain. They said their agreement with the EU allowed the option of supplying Europe from UK sites, but only once the UK had sufficient supplies.

The EU Commissioner for health Stella Kyriakides said: “The European Union will take any action required to protect its citizens and rights,” in response to AstraZeneca’s delay in delivering its doses to the EU. Kyriakides has emphasised their dissatisfaction with AstraZeneca’s response and will investigate further into which doses AstraZeneca has produced so far, where they have been produced and who has received them.

They have faced similar reactions from Pfizer who said there will also be delays in sending doses to the EU due to production delays in their European supply chains. These delays would have a significant impact on Chief von der Leyen’s promise to vaccinate 70% of adults in the EU by the end of August.

Critics and political opponents are not happy with the commission’s response and are calling for further clarification. The lack of transparency and delays has let to political and public mistrust in the EU. The upcoming weeks will see if they provide this transparency that von der Leyen is promising.

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The post Late Contracts and Production Delays: Why the EU is So Far Behind in Vaccine Deliverance appeared first on Relawding.

Twitter initially refused to ban over 250 accounts and posts which were allegedly tweeting under a hashtag accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “genocide” over the ongoing farmer protests. They then complied with the demand but reinstated the account six hours later after public outcry. However, the Indian government sent a notice to Twitter implying that Twitter employees could be breaking the law if they refuse to obey the demands. 

Today, Twitter said it will only partially comply with the government and has suspended more than 500 accounts. According to a copy of the government order reviewed by Reuters, the Indian government had also asked Twitter to restrict access to news accounts stating that the “freedom of the press does not include freedom to spread misinformation.” 

However, Twitter said in a blog that they will not comply with this demand, as well as emphasising their stance on freedom of speech: “We do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law, and, in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians.” 

India’s technology ministry shared from its official Twitter account that they will be meeting with Twitter and the government is to share its stance soon. In the meantime, Indian politicians have urged followers to switch to local app Koo, a rival microblogging site. #kooapp was the top trend on Twitter in India today with nearly 21,000 posts, followed by #BanTwitter.

So, what is Koo? 

It is a local microblogging site, which is available in four Indian languages, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. The app launched in March 2020 founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka, who also built other start-ups such as TaxiForSure and redBus. The app won the Prime Minister’s Aatma Nirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge in August 2020 and has been praised by PM Modi himself. 

The app itself allows user to write posts in text, audio or video format in 400 characters or less and videos of up to a minute long. The app can be downloaded both on Google Pay and Apple App stores. In terms of individuals and organisations using the app, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal can be found there, alongside organisations Digital India and India Post. In the last two days, downloads have increased to over 3 million after the government endorsements, with co-founder Bidawatka telling Reuters: “The last 48 hours have seen the largest numbers of sign-ups. I’ve slept for two hours in the last few days.”

The rapid growth in Koo’s users over the last few days after Indian politicians promoted the local app over Twitter after the US-company refused to comply with governments demands, poses serious worries over the future of freedom of expression in the country. The most concerning of the demands made by the government are the attempts to silence media outlets, journalists and activists reporting content critical of the Indian government. By urging Indians to move to an app where the government has more control over becomes concerning the government’s desire to control the narrative over the farmer protests.

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The post Twitter Loses Users to Koo in a Free Speech Battle with the Indian Government appeared first on Relawding.

Two days ago, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to three and a half years for violating the conditions of a suspended sentence. As mentioned in the previous article on Navalny, he was accused of embezzlement, allegations which Navalny denied. This has now been converted into jail time, however, the sentence will be reduced slightly, after he has served ten months already under house arrest. 

Hundreds gathered in Moscow and St Petersburg on Tuesday evening to protest the Russian government’s actions. Images of police attacking protestors with batons were being shared and videos streamed online. More than 1,000 protestors have been arrested across the country, with reports surfacing that they have been crammed into cells, despite coronavirus concerns.

The Guardian received video footage yesterday of the poor conditions in one of the centres where protestors were being held. Wife of Sergei Smirnov, the editor-in-chief of Russian website MediaZona, showed 28 men trying to sleep in a cell meant for eight. Smirnov’s wife, Tatyana said in an interview: “They’ve had this conveyer belt (for arrests). There are so many people they’re not even considering who’s a protester, who’s a journalist . . . even if they make a mistake they figure they’ll just sit the sentence and then get out. They don’t see it as the end of the world.”

Andrei Kolesnikov of the Moscow Carnegie Centre told the BBC that this was only the beginning of resistance. Kolesnikov said: “Navalny became not only a political force but a moral one, which makes him more attractive to those who weren’t preciously his followers. It’s not just the political opposition, but civil society that’s irritated by the cruelty – the behaviour of the police and the courts.”

Kolesnikov’s comments on Navalny paint him as a catalyst of unrest and resistance to the government’s actions. The violence and cruelty of the authorities have become too much for Russian citizens, and now with Navalny’s sentencing and the response of authorities towards protestors is building further resistance towards Putin’s government. 

Navalny’s lawyers, Olga Mikhailova and Vladimir Kobzev plan to put together an appeal to the European court of human rights. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) decided not to participate in the protests, as manager of FBK, Leonid Volkov was worried new rallies could affect the longevity of their campaign due to the mass arrests that have occurred in the last few weeks. Their main focus is the September parliamentary elections. 

Russians will not give up, the jailing of Navalny and continuous stringent actions taken by the Russian government will only fuel further resistance. The Russian people have already begun to show support for Yulia Navalnaya, wife of Alexei in a campaign of wearing the colour red in an online flashmob. Fashion writer, Katya Fedorova started the campaign on Instagram encouraging users to share photos of themselves in red clothes with the hashtag “Don’t be sad, everything will be fine.” These were the last words Navalny spoke to his wife before he was taken away.

The decision to send Navalny to prison has been met with further condemnation from the U.S. government and EU leaders with the U.S. secretary of state, Anthony Blinken saying that Washington was “deeply concerned” and reinforced the position that Navalny should be released immediately and unconditionally. EU chief of foreign affairs Josep Borell discusses the difficulties of the relations between the EU and Russia saying that the Navalny case has put strains on the relationship, and “while we fully respect Russian sovereignty . . . the European Union considers issues related to the rule of law, human rights, civil society and political freedom are central to our common future.”

Navalny has been taken to court again today under defamation charges, which the outcome will be revealed over the upcoming weeks. There is no doubt resistance will continue to build in the country as more details on the treatment of protestors become available to the media and public. If the government continues to act harshly this resistance will continue to get stronger, the jailing of Navalny will not silence the wider discontent with the running of the country.

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The post Protests, Politics and Prison – Navalny’s Return to Russia Causes a Storm appeared first on Relawding.

Bezos has led the company since its beginnings as an online bookstore in 1994. In this time, the company now employs 1.3 million people internationally and has expanded its products from electricals, food, clothing, beauty and streaming services. This led Bezos to accumulate a fortune of $196.2 billion, which makes him the world’s richest man according to Forbes’ list of billionaires. The company continued to thrive during the pandemic with the increase in supply and demand of goods, with the company reporting in 2020 an increase of 38% of sales from 2019.

In a letter to Amazon staff, Bezos said: “Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep responsibility, and it’s consuming. When you have a responsibility like that, it’s hard to put attention on anything else.” This change will take place in the second half of 2021, with his replacement Andy Jassy taking over.

Bezos’ will remain a part of the company in the role of executive chairman. This will allow how him to still stay a part of the company, whilst allowing him to pursue other ventures, such as focusing on his ownership of The Washington Post. Bezos said: “As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions.”

Who is Andy Jassy?

Jassy has worked at Amazon for twenty-three years after attending Harvard Business School and now runs Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud hosting product that creates the infrastructure used by millions of companies, schools and governments to run websites. AWS was founded by Jassy in 2003 and now accounts for half the company’s operating outcomes. It saw the potential in outsourcing computing and storage before its rivals Google and Microsoft, therefore becoming the clear leader in the field.

Bezos’ backed Jassy stating that he has “full confidence” in this replacement and went on to say in a letter addressed to Amazon staff: “Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon for almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader.” 

Jassy has also been known to speak out on social issues. On his Twitter account, he tweeted about the shooting of Breonna Taylor saying the police needed to be held accountable. He also announced his support for LGBTQ+ rights. However, he did come under fire after comments made in a PBS documentary about the company, where he defended the company’s sales of facial recognition technology to law enforcement, despite concerns over racial bias and misuse. Therefore, Jassy’s comments on social justice issues should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Future steps

Once Jassy takes over he will have several issues to deal with, namely the treatment of Amazon warehouse workers and their drives towards unionisation. Amazon workers have said that they were retaliated against for pushing for better working conditions, which was covered in an earlier article for Relawding.

Analysts have said that Bezos’ departure could lead to a shift in the company’s focus to business-to-business operations. Research director at Forrester, Allen Bonde said in the Evening Standard: “While consumer e-commerce is a big market, B2B is an even bigger prize. Picking a leader who is driving their main enterprise offering may indicate the future of Amazon is in fact selling more to businesses than consumers.” 

Whatever Jassy decides to do, there is little doubt that the company will suffer, as Andrew Goodacre, CEO of the British Independent Retailers Association said it’s: “Hard to imagine how Amazon will lose its dominance of online shopping. It is a very well defined and managed business and in reality I suspect it will grow.”

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