[OPINION] Between a rock and a hard place Mar 17, 2021 1:58 PM PHT Walden Bello The Philippines, like so many other countries in this time of COVID-19, is caught in the worst of all possible worlds, or between a rock and a hard place. On one side is the greed of western governments that want to hoard most of the vaccines, and western pharmaceutical corporations that will do anything to keep complete control of their patents and charge poor countries sky-high prices for vaccines. On the other, bungling governments that can’t organize a decent, orderly program of vaccination. Corporate greed As my friend, the economist Jayati Ghosh, writes, “This vaccine grab by rich countries meant that most of the world would get safe and approved vaccines only in 2022, and in some cases not even until 2024. In mid-January 2021, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) noted that while 39 million vaccine doses had already been administered in the rich countries…170 [of the] poorest countries had received no vaccines at all.”