Portland State Vanguard Volume 76 Issue 14

VOLUME 76 • ISSUE 14 • JULY 13, 2021

OREGON STATE AG ELLEN ROSENBLUM WANTS TO

FIGHT FOR STUDENTS’’ STUDENTS RIGHTS

SO SHE GOT THE STATE LEGISLATURE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

SCIENCE & TECH Aliens just aren't that into us P. 6

SPORTS Can PSU Athletics lure fans back?

P. 7

OPINION

What’s at the heart of vaccine inequality P. 8

CONTENTS

COVER BY SHANNON STEED

INTERNATIONAL HAITI’S FUTURE UNCERTAIN AFTER PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED

P. 3

SPORTS PSU ATHLETICS ATTEMPTS TO UPGRADE THEIR IMAGE

P. 7

NEWS THE OBLIGATION OF A LIFETIME

P. 4-5

OPINION VACCINES FOR THE RICH, CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE POOR

P. 8

SCIENCE & TECH UAP AND THE LIMITS OF OUR TECHNOLOGY

STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Nick Gatlin MANAGING EDITOR Morgan Troper NEWS EDITORS Conor Carroll Danny O’Brien INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Karisa Yuasa SPORTS EDITOR Eric Shelby SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Ryan McConnell

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Béla Kurzenhauser OPINION EDITOR Rachel Owen ONLINE EDITOR Lily Hennings COPY CHIEF Mackenzie Streissguth CONTRIBUTORS Allison Kirkpatrick Analisa Landeros

P. 6

PHO T O A ND MULTIMEDI A MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Olivia Lee

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Shannon Steed

STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher

DESIGNER Kelsey Stewart T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow Kahela Fickle George Olson

STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com

MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard ’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

HAITI’S FUTURE UNCERTAIN AFTER PRESIDENT ASSASSINATED KARISA YUASA Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was killed in his home by a squad of gunmen on July 7, according to AP News.

“Haiti has lost a true statesman,” said Claude Joseph, Haiti’s interim Prime Minister and now acting President. “We will ensure that those responsible for this heinous act are swiftly brought to justice.”

“The Secretary-General condemns in the strongest terms the assasination of President Moïse of the Republic of Haiti,” wrote the spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.“The perpetrators of this crime must be brought to justice.”

Haitian police have announced that there are currently 28 suspects in Moïse’s assassination as of July 9. Of the 28, 17 people have been apprehended and three have been killed. The police chief announced that, of the suspects, 26 were from Colombia and two were U.S.-Haitian dual-nationals.

Bocchit Edmond, the Haitian ambassador to the United States, said that the attack “was carried out by foreign mercenaries and professional killers” who were impersonating agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Moïse was a businessman with no political experience when he was picked by former President Michel Martelly as the ruling party’s candidate in the 2015 elections. He was formally elected president in 2016—following allegations of fraud in the 2015 elections—and he pledged to strengthen institutions, fight corruption and bring more jobs to Haiti.

However, his term was riddled with controversy, and the country was heading toward crisis prior to Moïse’s assassination.

Approximately 60% of Haiti’s population make less than $2

PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

INTERIM PRESIDENT OF HAITI CLAUDE JOSEPH SPEAKS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2021. JOSEPH ASSUMED THE PRESIDENCY AFTER THE ASSASINATION OF PRESIDENT JOVENEL MOÏSE. JOSEPH ODELYN/AP IMAGES a day, and shortages of food and other resources have led to exponential inflation.

Moïse had been ruling by decree since Jan. 2020, after dissolving Parliament. Controversy over the timeline of his term led to conflicts and protests earlier this year.

Joseph, who took over following Moïse’s death with the backing of the military and police, declared a two-week state of siege and closed international borders.

“All measures are being taken to guarantee the continuity of the state and to protect the nation,” Joseph said.

A state of siege puts the country under a type of martial law.

The declaration is being questioned on the basis of legitimacy and practicality.

A state of siege can only legally be declared by Parliament.

“Legally, he can’t do this,” said Haitian historian Georges Michel.

“We are in a state of necessity.”

Haiti currently has a limited parliament. The entire lower house is empty and only 10 of 30 Senate seats are filled as the terms expired over a year ago and new elections have yet to be held.

“Large parts of the country are controlled by gangs, thousands of people are seeking shelter fleeing gang violence,” said Widlore Merancourt, a Haitian journalist. “These men can parade in several main roads while the police cannot do anything because they have more arms than the police.”

In areas controlled by gangs, police and military forces are unable to enforce state of siege rules.

The future of leadership in the country remains unknown.

Under the Constitution, the president of the Supreme Court

would take over as interim president before the National Assembly selects a new leader. However, the president of the Supreme Court recently died from COVID-19, and, due to the postponement of elections, the legislature is subfunctional.

On June 9, a group of legislators announced that they recognised Joseph Lambert, head of the remainder of Haiti’s Senate, as provisional president, challenging Claude Joseph’s legitimacy, according to Al Jazeera.

The group of legislators also recognized Ariel Henry, whom Moïse appointed to replace Joseph as prime minister a day before his death, as the country’s prime minister, despite not yet taking office.

“There’s only one way people can become president in Haiti and that’s through elections,” Joseph said.

The two top security officials that were in charge of Moïse’s safety are under investigation and are set to appear at hearings scheduled for July 13 and 14.

Haiti’s main opposition party issued a statement denouncing the killing.

“In this painful circumstance, the political forces of the opposition condemn with utmost rigor this heinous crime that is at odds with democratic principles,” the statement read.

Moïse is survived by his wife and three children.

“In the blink of an eye, the mercenaries entered my home and riddled my husband with bullets…without even giving him a chance to say a word,” said Martine Moïse, Jovenel Moïse’s wife, who was critically injured in the attack. “I am crying, it is true, but we cannot let this country lose its way. We cannot let his blood…[be] spilled in vain.”

INTERNATIONAL

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THE OBLIGATION OF A LIFETIME CONOR CARROLL Oregon state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 485 on June 25, which declared an emergency around the servicing of student loans, created important consumer protections for borrowers and instituted functional regulations for student loan servicers.

“Significant concerns surrounding this industry, and the real life impact of student debt burdens on Oregonians point to a need for more oversight,” stated the Oregon Department of Justice background analysis on student loan servicing.

“On top of the sheer amount of debt, student loans are complex,” Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said. “Borrowers make financial decisions…that will impact them for a long time to come. Once the loan payments come due, unfortunately, many [loan servicers] are more concerned about their bottom line than protecting the borrowers.”

Rosenblum, who has requested legislation that would protect “education-related” borrowers for many years, spoke with Portland State Vanguard regarding SB 485 and the state of the $20 billion student loan burden in Oregon, which is an increase of $2 billion from 2018.

“I made the student debt crisis one of my top initiatives since I was first elected Attorney General, and five years ago I hosted the first National Attorneys General Conference on this topic and hosted another one in the Spring of 2019,” Rosenblum said.

“When I started hearing the numbers, I was just stunned by the amount of education-related debt that there is out there.”

“There is now an estimated $1.7 trillion [debt] nationally, which is just astounding if you think about it [in economic terms],” Rosenblum said.

“That’s a lot of money.”

Elected officials are not the only ones concerned over the student debt crisis, nor the potential effects upon the economy and labor market.

Dr. Mary C. King is Professor Emerita of Economics at Portland State University and specializes in the

economics of labor markets, history of economic thought and minority participation in the U.S. economy. King is also a Rhodes Scholar in Industrial Relations, an honor received after her time at Oxford University.

“Student debt has been growing quickly, and is now the second biggest form of debt in the U.S. Only mortgage debt is larger,” King said in a recent discussion with Vanguard.

“In Fall 2012, I taught a PSU Capstone class with my colleague, Barbara Dudley, on ‘Student Debt – Economics, Policy and Advocacy,’ which resulted in a class report advocating a pay-itforward strategy for Oregon that was presented in front of a legislative panel at PSU and to Portland’s City Club,” King said. “Class members testified to legislators in Salem and to the Higher Education Coordinating Committee.”

“In a ‘pay it forward’ system, students pay no tuition or fees up front, but, instead, pay a small percentage of their income above a certain threshold into the system, starting perhaps [five] years after they’ve graduated,” King said.

The recent legislation passed by Oregon lawmakers does not address King’s aspects of student loan policy specifically, but Rosenblum believes that targeted regulations protecting educationrelated borrowing and loan servicing are critical to “get the ball rolling.”

“It just seemed that if we [as elected officials] were not going to pay attention to this crisis, we were harming our students,” Rosenblum said.

“Students have every right to assume that when they borrow money for their education, it’s going to be a [net-positive].” “[Students assume] that they are going to actually have an education, and be able to have a good life, to have opportunities, to have the things their parents had, like buying a car, a house, have a family if they want to, without having that burden of debt control their lives,” Rosenblum said.

However, a lack of regulatory legislation on a national and state level has left students relying on the institutions profiting off of their loan servicing to also help them navigate

the process of paying off loans itself. The years in delay may have been costly to taxpayers and student borrowers alike.

In March 2021, the student loan servicer giant Navient was found guilty of violating the Consumer Protection Act by “engaging in unfair and deceptive conduct related to Washingtonians’ student loans,” according to the order from a district judge in Washington state.

Washington’s example is just one in a nation without substantial regulations on companies like Navient. Bills like Oregon’s SB 485 are also constructed to help borrowers navigate complexities of paying down a loan in the U.S. “There are basically two main aspects of the bill; [the] licensing and regulation part ... and then the ombudsperson position, which is having an actual person being able to address real complaints and problems with the laws or regulations,” explained Kate Denison, Deputy Legislative Director for the Attorney General’s office.

SB 485 also mandates that the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services specifically protect the borrower under the new legislation, and will now process the licensing and regulatory work and house the ombudsperson.

The lack of loan servicing protections, in general, was a partial impetus for this legislation, and currently over a dozen states have some form or another of student loan servicing protections, though they vary in their ability to regulate or combat the practices of malicious loan servicers.

Such protections are critical to controlling the industry that is education-related borrowing, which has a poor track record and a great deal of influence

on the labor economy writ large, considering that student loan debt is second only to mortgage debt nationwide.

Moreover, the issue of debt in general is a critical issue for Americans. After the 2008 financial crisis, the economy was seeing a leveling-out of consumer debt—even a brief dip in that debt—however the COVID-19 pandemic ground the labor economy to a halt.

According to Debt.org, consumer debt, in totality, reached $14.56 trillion after the fourth quarter of 2020.

“There has been consistent growth in four main areas of debt—home, auto, student loans and credit cards. Non-housing debt has risen faster, increasing 51% since 2013 compared with a 24% increase in mortgage debt,” according to Debt.org.

SHANNON STEED

4

NEWS

PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

“Student debt is a real drag on the economy as it particularly hinders younger people, keeping them from starting a family, if they wish, and also building economic security for the future by pursuing further education,” King said. “Purchasing a more reliable car, starting a business, or buying a house—all of which create jobs for others. Even having children benefits everyone, as they are the labor force of the future and will pay for the Social Security and Medicare of older generations.”

“College is more expensive in the U.S. than elsewhere for two main reasons,” King said.

“One, as more people are going to college, state legislators fearful of raising taxes have slashed their per-student support for public universities, forcing those public universities to raise

tuition and cut costs by relying increasingly on part-time faculty with few benefits.”

“Second, many U.S. colleges are private and use various tactics to attract students, including offering fancy gyms, dorms and other amenities,” King continued. “Also, higher education is an ‘experience good,’ a product for which the quality can’t be determined in advance of experiencing it. Charging a high price is one strategy to persuade consumers that an experience good is high quality.”

CREDIT CARDS $820 BILLION

STUDENT LOANS

“Finally, U.S. universities have succumbed to the idea that their upper administration should be paid the astronomical salaries increasingly paid [to] CEOs in this country, despite a lack of evidence in both cases that it’s money well spent,” King said.

Students are a wide-ranging demographic, and, according to Rosenblum, the fastest growing demographic of Oregonians defaulting on education-related loans are 65 years of age or older.

“They often co-sign loans for their children and grandchildren, but they also go back to school themselves, and they have fixed income at a certain point,” Rosenblum said. “The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has estimated that the number of older Americans with education-related loan debt has quadrupled over the last decade.”

According to a 2018

$1.56 TRILLION

AUTO

$1.37 TRILLION

HOME

American Psychological Association analysis, the financial stress of these loans created untold anxiety and depression in borrowers that have grappled to keep up with payments and other obligations, leading to overall negative mental health outcomes.

The federal government has made attempts over the years to mitigate the vagaries of education-related loans.

According to a 2019 Congressional Research Service report, the primary federal actions needed to help stem the predatory practices of loan services nationwide are, first, to settle the legal issues over preempting state laws that are inadequate or improperly enforced and, second, amending the Higher Education Act of 1967 so as to create what is known as a “private right of action.”

The Biden administration announced in midJune of 2021 that an estimated $500 million in student loan debt will be forgiven, though it is unclear if these efforts will include student loan servicing, or what this means for state regulations like SB 485.

With the increased financial difficulties associated with attending upper education, some have questioned the efficacy of attempting a college degree in the first place, though some experts believe a college degree is still the optimal route for economic success.

“On average, a college degree pays off in the labor market, but you do have to think carefully about what degree you obtain and what you pay for it,” King said. “You can’t assume that the fact that a degree is offered means that it will lead to work with living wages.”

The Attorney General shared a similar sentiment and will continue to protect the rights of students in the state of Oregon.

“What’s more important?

Is there anything more important?” Rosenblum said.

$10.4 TRILLION

OREGON LAWMAKERS PASSED SB 485 TO PROTECT STUDENTS WITH EDUCATIONAL LOANS. ELLEN ROSENBLUM IS STILL WORRIED ABOUT MOUNTING DEBT. PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

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UAP AND THE LIMITS OF OUR TECHNOLOGY RYAN MCCONNELL Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have long existed in the popular imagination, and they have been a hot topic for many conspiracists. Now, the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has published an official report concerning UAP, though it does little to debunk many of the conspiracies about these otherworldly phenomena.

Before anyone can jump to conclusions about extraterrestrial beings visiting Earth, let’s first understand what UAP are, how the military has handled their existence and what our current understanding of these phenomena are.

First, unidentified aerial phenomena—the preferential title, according to the ODNI report, as opposed to unidentified flying objects (UFOs)— are exactly that: unidentified. They are ill-understood, and, while unknown circumstances make for great inspiration in art, reality is far more mundane than many might expect.

The report published by ODNI offers no conclusive evidence that incidents involving UAP are or are not extraterrestrial. Had it done so, these incidents would no longer be considered “unidentified.” A total of 143 reports remain unexplained, with at least 18 incidents exhibiting technological capabilities beyond the intelligence of the United States.

The report explains that UAP most likely lack a single explanation, and can be sorted into five categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, classified U.S. developmental or industrial programs, foreign adversary systems or the miscellaneous “other.”

Airborne clutter—which includes objects such as birds, balloons, plastic bags and other debris—is a frequent contender for many UAP explanations. Considering the amount of debris we’ve accumulated in space and in our oceans, it’s not difficult to imagine aerial debris as a potential explanation for assumed evidence of extraterrestrial life.

As stated in ODNI’s report, natural atmospheric phenomena can include ice crystals, moisture and thermal fluctuations that may register on standard infrared and radar systems.

Perhaps more elusive than the “other” category itself, ODNI reports that some UAP observations may be the result of classified programs developed by U.S. entities. Of course, it can not be entirely confirmed if that is the case, and little is known about what this category implies.

Technologies developed by foreign entities, or perhaps by no nationstate at all, are also not ruled out in the categories for potential explanations, although the report states that there is little evidence to suggest that foreign technologies are currently capable of registering as UAP. This subject has, however, been of particular interest to the U.S. Intelligence Community because of fears about national security threats.

Finally, everything that remains scientifically inexplicable is placed in the “other” category, but this is likely due to a lack of data and limited analytical capabilities rather than extraterrestrial technology.

What makes the phenomena unidentifiable or unexplainable has to do with current limitations of maneuverability. Three declassified videos show an object moving upwind at abnormally high speeds without observable propulsion. Currently, the fastest aircraft in the world is the SR-71 Blackbird, which relies on jet propulsion and an extremely particular design.

It is unknown how the Blackbird’s maneuverability and speed compares to the UAP in the declassified reports. In fact, no official numbers were found in the report detailing exactly how fast the UAP were traveling.

Instead, the report simply states that the objects were “unusually fast.”

The propulsion of all jets, rockets and planes are explained by the same principle: Newton’s third law of motion. The law states that all forces exist in pairs, and aircraft exploit that law to forcefully eject large amounts of matter from a system, producing an equal and opposite reaction that pushes the object forward.

Several key UAP have yet to be explained because they seemingly defy the very foundational laws of physics.

The observations in the report are perhaps not impossible to reproduce, but, if the objects are confirmed to be aircraft, this could fundamentally change the way we think about our current laws of physics. The same reasoning is also why UAP are unlikely to be the result of foreign technology, since the laws of physics apply throughout the world, not just in the U.S. There is still plenty about the universe that we do not understand, which is the reason why science and technology research exists in the first place. ODNI’s report does nothing to enhance our understanding; it only reiterates that it too has yet to fully identify everything on our planet.

Whether UAP are the result of E.T. “phoning home” is SHANNON STEED doubtful—however disappointing that may be.

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

EMPTY VIKING PAVILION WITH A BANNER READING "WE ARE THE SHIP." ERIC SHELBY/PSU VANGUARD

ERIC SHELBY Portland State is home to 14 different varsity teams, including football and basketball. Of those 14 programs, only three of them are on campus—while the outdoor programs like football and softball are played two cities away, at the stadium in Hillsboro, Oregon. Because of this, PSU has faced issues with getting fans to attend games and make the sports culture in Portland more lively.

PSU has an underrated sports history, often unknown or not talked about. Portland State, as a program, started as a Division II (D-II) school until proving their worth and rising up to Division I (D-I), joining the Big Sky Conference in 1996. PSU’s D-II resume consists of 7 national championships with volleyball claiming four of them and the (now defunct) wrestling team earning three. PSU football, during its time in D-II, made it to the national championship game back-to-back in 1987 and 1988. Sadly, they lost both years to Troy State and North Dakota State. The football team’s most recent D-I playoff appearance was in 2015, losing to Northern Iowa in the second round.

The men’s basketball team had a GOAT on their team—shooting guard Freeman Williams—who led the most points scored in the NCAA in a single season in both 1977 and 1978. He was drafted in ‘78 by the Boston Celtics and ended his career playing for six teams from 1978 to 1993.

The women’s basketball team was a runner up in the NCAA national championship in 1995 during their time in D-II. That loss was also to North Dakota State—there’s a pattern here.

They’ve also made final four appearances in 1992 and 1995.

The women’s basketball team won the Big Sky championship in 2019, falling to our rivals Oregon State in the NCAA tournament.

Since joining Division I, championship appearances and playoff runs have been slower and fans are starting to fade out—but are not gone. PSU athletics attempts to switch it up and get students excited, as they will finally be seen in the stands again.

The recently renovated Viking Pavilion on campus, home to basketball and volleyball, has a capacity of 3,094 people. In the year before the pandemic, the men’s basketball team averaged 1,238 fans per game while the women’s basketball team only averaged 482 fans per game despite the fact that they had won the

PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com

PSU ATHLETICS ATTEMPTS TO UPGRADE THEIR IMAGE Big Sky Conference that year.

Even one of the NCAA’s most popular sports, basketball, could not bring fans to the Pavilion in Portland, even though it is in our backyard. PSU football used to play their home games at Providence Park, the stadium where the Portland Timbers and Thorns play soccer. This stadium, with a 25,218 capacity and located only a 20-minute walk from campus, still wasn’t enough to bring fans in. In 2016, the team relocated to Hillsboro Stadium with a capacity of 7,600.

On June 1, 2021, Portland State mass-emailed all of their students asking them to spend five minutes out of their day to answer a quick survey about the state of PSU athletics. The questions in the survey were oddly specific, like “I would attend more off-campus football athletic events if there was a shuttle available at 30-minute intervals for arrival/departure.”

This question is related to the fact that the PSU football team hosts their games at the Hillsboro stadium and it is inconvenient to go to a game, especially when a lot of students don’t have a car on campus.

This was just the beginning of bigger things coming. Only a week later, on June 9, the Big Sky Conference agreed to sign a multi-year media rights agreement with ESPN. This is major news because the Big Sky Conference was originally partnered

with a much smaller streaming service called Pluto TV. This ESPN deal will have over 600 live events on the streaming service ESPN+, as well as on the ESPN app.

PSU is no stranger to ESPN. When our softball team won the Big Sky Conference and made it to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2013, the NCAA tournament was hosted on ESPN with PSU playing softball juggernauts like University of Washington and Michigan.

While the ESPN+ streaming does cost $5.99 a month, ESPN University (ESPNU) will air two Big Sky football games per year and one regular season basketball game. On top of that, they will also air the men’s and women’s Big Sky basketball championship games, hopefully having PSU as a contender.

A little less than a month later, Portland State Athletics announced on July 2 that they have partnered with Peak Sports Management to help with their marketing brand and oversee multimedia rights. Peak Sports has already partnered with 20 schools like Florida A&M and University of Central Arkansas.

PSU will be their first school partnership in the Pacific Northwest. PSU will also be Peak Sports Management’s first urban school partnership. PSU is ready to change things and put themselves on the map again—just like they were in D-II— and it all starts with the fans’ support.

SPORTS

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VACCINES FOR THE RICH, CRUMBLING INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE POOR KELSEY STEWART

RACHEL OWEN When it comes to issues that affect the world internationally, it is so easy to create the narrative that someone is at fault for everything. By reading statistics and gathering information from several sources, the desire to compile data into a single story that points fingers or sticks to a hegemonic value becomes second nature. However, these narratives aren’t always true. Sometimes, the reason that problems exist is not because of some particular entity or philosophy, but merely because of the same systematic dysfunctions that cause other problems.

In the case of international COVID-19 vaccine distribution, the reason that low-income countries do not have access to vaccines is not because other countries don’t want to help, but because these countries do not have the infrastructure to be helped.

At the start of the pandemic, it was easy to pinpoint where it would hit the hardest and why. Countries with large populations, strong governments and solid infrastructures were not going to be as devastated as those that do not have a government that manages their citizens and provides proper care to those that become sick.

This unfortunate situation rang true as COVID-19 tore through nations and left a trail of sick people in its wake. Countries with higher poverty rates were disproportionately affected by the disease in comparison to wealthier countries because they did not have the same government-provided care.

Last Dec., a report by the Secretary-General of the United Nations Trade and Development Agency, Mukhisa Kituyi, stated that the pandemic is leading least developed countries (LDCs) to “their worst economic crisis in 30 years” and that their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is “expected to fall by 2.6% this year.”

The report also stated that an “estimated 1.06 billion people live in the 47 LDCs, which account for less than 1.3% of global

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economic turnover, or GDP.” Nearly a seventh of the world’s population lives in these countries. With that much of the world being so deeply affected by the pandemic, it is essential that countries that are able to help do so.

As the world moves further away from the era of covered faces and pocket-sized hand-sanitizers and into the era of hugs and seeing our family members again, it is important to not exclude developing countries from the joys of the pandemic’s end.

The best way to do this is through international COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

According to The New York Times, an international group called Covax is committed to distributing two billion doses of the vaccine worldwide, with an emphasis on developing countries.

Their goal is to “ensure vaccinations for a fifth of the population of its 190 participating countries and economies” by the end of this year. They intend to partner with countries to take left-over vaccines, such as the Pfizer and the AstraZeneca vaccines, and give them to countries in need. This allows for a well-mediated share of immunizations that does not involve individual vaccine companies having to do it themselves. Instead, Covax allows for quicker distribution of vaccines, and, therefore, quicker health and recovery from the pandemic in places that otherwise may not have had the opportunity.

Although this system is already in place and countries such as France have agreed to help, vaccines continue to be better dispersed in wealthier countries due to their increase in regulation and strong healthcare systems. BBC reports that out of “193 countries and territories administering vaccines and publishing rollout data, 67 are high-income nations, 101 are middleincome and 25 low-income.”

Despite the concentration in middle-income countries, the percentage of vaccines in low-income countries is upsetting.

In the map provided by BBC, less than 5% of the entire population of the continent of Africa has been vaccinated.

While the lack of vaccination through low-income countries is certainly upsetting, it is also understandable. Historically, the countries that have had issues with COVID -19 are also countries that have had issues with other diseases and general sustainability of life. At this point, the question isn’t why aren’t these countries getting vaccines, but why aren’t they able to sustain vaccine dispersal?

The short answer: it’s complicated.

Mass production and distribution of vaccines is already tricky enough in places that have the means to carry out the process. In places that do not have those same means, vaccines are even harder to produce. Even if outside agencies were to come into these countries and help, how would they do it? How would they keep the vaccines properly stored and cooled? How would they travel through the rural regions to get to small villages? How would they convince people to take the vaccine?

Low-income countries generally have infrastructural and governmental issues that are not solely due to their own development as nations. Therefore, when it comes to other countries trying to step-in and help, some methods of support do not always prove to be beneficial because these developing countries do not have the infrastructure to carry them out.

As the world continues to try to disperse COVID-19 care, it is difficult to help countries that do not have the means to be helped.

Assisting low-income countries during these trying times is important, but comes with long-standing systemic complications that are not easy to fix.

PSU Vanguard • JULY 13, 2021 • psuvanguard.com