Authorities are worried at the rate underground scammers are selling fake COVID-19 vaccines. The majority of sellers originated in France, Germany, the UK, and the USA, and the prices per dose range from $250 to $1,200, with an average cost of about $500. Scammers and buyers usually get in contact via encrypted messaging apps like Wickr and Telegram, while payments are requested in the form of cryptocurrency, primarily Bitcoin. The majority of these underground sellers have made between 100-500 transactions.
COVID-19 Lab
With the information available to Kaspersky experts, it’s impossible to tell how many doses of the vaccine being advertised online are actual doses (many medical facilities have found themselves with leftover doses) and how many advertisements are scams.
“You can find just about anything on the Darknet, so it’s not surprising sellers there would attempt to capitalise on the vaccination campaign. Over the past year, there have been a whole host of scams exploiting the COVID topic, and many of them have been successful,” says Dmitry Galov, security expert at Kaspersky.
“Right now, not only are people selling vaccine doses, but they’re also selling vaccination records – pieces of paper that can help you travel freely. It’s important for users to be cautious of any “deal” related to the pandemic, and, of course, it’s never a good idea to buy a vaccine off of the Darknet.”
To stay safe from scammers at the time of COVID, Kaspersky experts recommend the following:
Never buy products – including vaccine doses – on the Darknet.
If you see an advertisement for something related to COVID, look carefully at the URLs of the sites that you visit. If just one letter looks out of place, or if the usual .com has been replaced with .com.tk or something along those lines, your gut should tell you it is phishing. Never enter personal information on such a site.
Pay attention to grammar and layout on both the sites you visit and the emails you receive. If something seems phishy, it probably is.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
COVAX announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; rollout to commence with successful execution of supply agreements; additionally, COVAX announced that, pending WHO emergency use listings, nearly 150 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate are anticipated to be available in Q1 2021, via existing agreements with the Serum Institute of India (SII) and AstraZeneca; COVAX is therefore on track to deliver at least 2 billion doses by the end of the year, including at least 1.3 billion doses to 92 lower income economies in the Gavi COVAX AMC.
COVAX, the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries, regardless of income level, today announced the signing of an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine candidate, which has already received WHO emergency use listing. Rollout will commence with the successful negotiation and execution of supply agreements.
In further support of its mission to expedite early availability of vaccines to lower-income countries and help bring a rapid end to the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, COVAX also confirmed today that it will exercise an option – via an existing agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) – to receive its first 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University-developed vaccine manufactured by SII.
Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing. The WHO review process, which is currently underway, follows approval for restricted use in emergency situations by the Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month, and is a critical aspect of ensuring that any vaccine procured through COVAX is fully quality assured for international use. According to the latest WHO update, a decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated by the middle of February.
COVAX also anticipates that, via an existing agreement with AstraZeneca, at least 50 million further doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine will be available for delivery to COVAX participants in Q1 2021, pending emergency use listing by WHO of the COVAX-specific manufacturing network for these doses. A decision on this candidate is also anticipated by WHO in February.
“Today marks another milestone for COVAX: pending regulatory approval for the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate and pending the successful conclusion of the supply agreement for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we anticipate being able to begin deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines by the end of February. This is not just significant for COVAX, it is a major step forward for equitable access to vaccines, and an essential part of the global effort to beat this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.
Preparations, led by WHO, UNICEF and Gavi, are already well under way for COVAX to deliver vaccines to economies eligible for support via the COVAX AMC, with Gavi making US$ 150 million available from its core funding as initial, catalytic support for preparedness and delivery.
“The urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines is not just a moral imperative, it’s also a health security, strategic and economic imperative,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization. “This agreement with Pfizer will help to enable COVAX to save lives, stabilize health systems and drive the global economic recovery.”
Building on the work of the past months supporting country readiness efforts, a “Country Readiness Portal” will be launched by WHO this month, which will allow AMC participants to submit final national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs). This is a vital step before allocations can be made, to ensure that delivered doses are able to be effectively deployed and to identify where, if necessary, further support is needed.
“These purchase agreements open the door for these lifesaving vaccines to become available to people in the most vulnerable countries,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “But at the same time we are securing vaccines we must also ensure that countries are ready to receive them, deploy them, and build trust in them.”
The COVAX Facility intends to provide all 190 participating economies with an indicative allocation of doses by the end of this month. This indicative allocation will provide interim guidance to participants – offering a minimum planning scenario to enable preparations for the final allocation of the number of doses each participant will receive in the first rounds of vaccine distribution.
COVAX now has agreements in place to access just over two billion doses of several promising vaccine candidates. Negotiations continue for further doses to be secured through existing R&D agreements by COVAX co-lead the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), through evaluations of new products with promising results and through contributions from donors.
Based on this, COVAX anticipates being able to provide participating economies doses of safe and effective vaccines – enough to protect health care and other frontline workers as well as some high-risk individuals – beginning in Q1 2021. The aim is to protect at least 20% of each participating population by the end of the year – unless a participant has requested a lower percentage of doses. At least 1.3 billion of these doses will be made available to the 92 economies eligible for the Gavi COVAX AMC by the end of 2021.
To meet its goal of securing two billion safe and effective vaccines in 2021, COVAX has built a diverse portfolio of vaccine candidates which mitigates the risk of a product failing development, production or regulatory processes, and ensures availability of products suitable for various contexts and settings. This work will continue at pace to enable further supply of vaccines suitable for use across a wide range of populations and settings in 2021 and beyond.
“The progress in vaccine development so far has been extraordinary, and it is clear that we are now assembling the tools we need to bring the acute phase of the pandemic to an end. But we cannot afford to slow our efforts given the speed with which this pandemic continues to wreak havoc,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, CEO of CEPI. “The emergence of new variants of COVID-19 puts into sharp focus the need for us to be one step ahead of the virus by continuing to invest in vaccine R&D – specifically for next-generation vaccine candidates and to be ready for strain changes in existing vaccines – to ensure we have the tools to meet the needs of all populations in all countries for the long term.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The African Export-Import Bank has expressed readiness to raise up to $5bn to purchase Covid-19 vaccines for African countries this was made known head of Africa’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying that Africa needs to be proactive in the race to secure vaccines for the novel coronavirus that has infected more than 41-million people globally.
Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank
Covax, a global Covid-19 vaccine allocation plan co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will only be able to secure shots for less than 10% of the continent’s population of 1.29-billion, he said. Western nations are spending billions to shore up supplies of potential inoculations.
In September, the European Commission reached agreements with drugmakers AstraZeneca, Sanofi and GSK to buy up to 700-million doses. Covax, designed to lower prices and discourage national governments from hoarding Covid-19 vaccines, aims to help buy and fairly distribute at least 2-billion doses of approved vaccines by the end of 2021.
“We are discussing with Afreximbank, and they … say look, we are ready to raise up to about $5bn to support additional doses of vaccines,” Nkengasong said in an interview. He added the money could be poured into Covax or spent to negotiate directly with manufacturers.
Read also:
The WHO said in September it wanted to secure an initial 230-million doses of any Covid-19 vaccine for Africa, but Nkengasong warned that, accounting for two shots per person and leakages in distribution, this would only cover 8%-9% of Africa’s population, far short of the 40%-60% needed for immunity.
Nkengasong said the CDC has been in talks with the Serum Institute of India about manufacturing up to 200-million doses for Africa of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, should it prove to be successful. Africa so far has 1,666,276 confirmed coronavirus cases and 40,344 deaths, according to a Reuters tally on Wednesday, based on government and WHO data. The WHO fears that “a significant number of cases are still being missed”, a senior official said on Thursday.
Many African governments are trying to expand their testing capabilities by increasing their use of antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests, WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said in a press briefing.
Rapid diagnostic tests, she said, do not require things that are needed for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test but are in short supply in most African countries. Materials such as reagents are in hot demand globally, as well as technical staff and advanced laboratories. Testing in Africa lags behind other regions. Nigeria is conducting 11 times fewer tests than Brazil, she said, though the two countries have roughly comparable populations.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
An effective COVID-19 vaccine could help us emerge from isolation and end the social distancing required during this pandemic; but it will only work if people are willing to be vaccinated [1].
We conducted a survey in June of 2020 that addressed whether people’s willingness to use a COVID-19 vaccine and adopt other preventive healthcare measures was associated with trust. The survey was conducted in nine countries: China, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. A thousand individuals were surveyed in each country, and the responses were weighted to the most recent census data.
Derek Yach, MBChB, MPH, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World
While an average of 86% of the respondents had increased the number of times they washed their hands in April and May of 2020, an average of 21% said that they would not get vaccinated. These figures were highest in Sweden (31%) and South Africa (30.6%), but were not much better in the United States (28%) and Italy (23%) (Figure A). Unfortunately, many of these levels barely reach the cusp of vaccine coverage needed to achieve population-wide herd immunity against COVID-19.
Sources show that the public is most concerned with vaccine effectiveness and the risk of vaccine side effects Worry about side effects has historically had a big influence on vaccine acceptance. In the UK, concern about reported neurological complications from common childhood vaccines lowered the vaccination rate from 81% in 1974 to 31% in 1980, leading to a resurgence of pertussis that resulted in over 100,000 cases.In 2018, 20% of respondents to the Wellcome Global Monitor survey in the UK said they believed that the risk of vaccine side effects was fairly high or very high .
Interestingly, our survey showed that respondents who said they would get vaccinated had more education than those who said they would not get vaccinated. These results were highest in the U.S. and Sweden . This may mean that people with more education have more information, but this correlation will need to be further explored before it can be explained.
Dr. Bruce Gellin, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Director of the National Vaccine Program in the Department of Health and Human Services, has said that the foundation that underpins vaccination acceptance is trust. Our survey explored respondents’ trust of both their national government and the medical profession.With the exception of China, India, and Indonesia, most respondents had relatively low levels of trust in their national government, but most of the respondents said they trusted the medical profession. Trust in both entities, but especially in the medical profession, was generally higher among those who said they would get vaccinated. These findings emphasize the importance of having medical professionals lead messaging about vaccine safety, effectiveness, and benefits.
A recent piece in the Journal of the American Medical Associationon flu vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic stated that strong, unified messaging is essential to vaccine compliance. The article cites the CDC’s call to action that urges physicians to make every effort to get their patients vaccinated and acknowledges that physicians and healthcare professionals are the most trusted source for accurate information on vaccine risks. The role of medical professions in preventing larger public health crises that could overwhelm the world’s healthcare resources cannot be overestimated.
We suggest that healthcare professionals partner with their national governments and international healthcare experts, such as the World Health Organization, to create consistent, accurate messages about the benefits of vaccination for COVID-19. These messages should use simple language that people with no more than an elementary education can understand; acknowledge peoples’ fears about vaccine side effects and cite accurate, verifiable data on side effect risks; and state whatever data is available on vaccine effectiveness. This will ensure that the greatest number of people will get vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is ready leading to a potential end to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Derek Yach, MBChB, MPH, is of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
African countries are fast signing up to a ground-breaking initiative which aims to secure at least 220 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for the continent, once licensed and approved. All 54 countries on the continent have expressed interest in COVAX, a global initiative which is co-led by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The partners are working with governments and manufacturers to procure enough vaccine doses to protect the most vulnerable populations on the continent. Through the Gavi-coordinated COVAX Facility, the initiative seeks to ensure access for all: both higher and middle-income countries which will self-finance their own participation and lower-middle income and low-income countries which will have their participation supported by the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC).
Dr Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer, CEPI
There are eight countries in Africa that have agreed to self-finance their vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility. This expression of interest will turn into binding commitments to join the initiative by 18 September, with upfront payments to follow no later than 9 October 2020.
“Equatorial Guinea has signed up to COVAX as it’s the most effective way to ensure that our people can access COVID-19 vaccines,” said Hon Mitoha Ondo’O Ayekaba, Vice Minister for Health and Social Welfare, Equatorial Guinea. “We are concerned as some wealthier countries have made moves to secure their own interests. We believe that through this initiative we can access successfully tested vaccines in a timely manner and at lower cost.”
In addition, 46 countries in Africa are eligible for support from the financing instrument, the COVAX AMC which has raised approximately US$ 700 million against an initial target of securing US$ 2 billion seed funding from high-income donor countries, as well as private sector and philanthropists by the end of 2020.
“COVAX is a ground-breaking global initiative which will include African countries and ensure they are not left at the back of the queue for COVID-19 vaccines,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “By reaching beyond the continent to work together with other governments and manufacturers on a global scale and pooling buying power, countries can protect the people most vulnerable to the disease in Africa.”
CEPI is leading COVAX vaccine research and aims to develop up to three safe and effective vaccines which will be made available to countries participating in the COVAX Facility. Nine candidate vaccines are currently being supported by CEPI; two are currently being tested in South Africa, in addition to other regions around the world.
“It’s critical that countries in Africa participate in vaccine trials, in addition to the clinical trials taking place in other regions of the world,” said Dr Richard Hatchett, Chief Executive Officer, CEPI. “Testing vaccines on the continent ensures that sufficient data is generated on the safety and efficacy of the most promising vaccine candidates for the African population so they can be confidently rolled out in Africa once vaccines are approved. CEPI is investing in the research and development of a diverse range of vaccine candidates, with the aim of delivering safe and effective vaccines to those who need them most through COVAX.”
Through COVAX, vaccines that have passed regulatory approval or WHO prequalification will be delivered equally to all participating countries, proportional to their populations. Health workers and other vulnerable populations will be prioritized and then vaccine availability will expand to cover additional priority populations in participating countries.
African countries will need to have in place the right systems and infrastructure to define the regulatory and ethical pathways for a quick approval of a candidate vaccine. They will need to have logistics and supply chain systems which can reach not only the traditional target populations for routine immunizations and campaigns but be ready to vaccinate a much larger target population.
“To roll out a vaccine effectively across countries in Africa, it is critical that communities are engaged and understand the need for vaccination,” said Dr Richard Mihigo, Programme Area Manager, Immunization and Vaccine Development, Programme Area Manager, Immunization and Vaccine Development, WHO Regional Office for Africa. “It is important to already start working with communities to prepare the way for one of the largest vaccination campaigns Africa has ever experienced.”
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
The North African countries of Morocco and Algeria seem to have taken their competition for regional supremacy to another level as both are in a race for Covid-19 vaccine trials. While the Chinese vaccine trials are underway in Morocco, Algeria is acquiring the controversial Russian vaccines.
Professor Richard Peto of Oxford University
Morocco and Algeria have chosen different paths in pursuing vaccines against COVID-19. Morocco has chosen to take part in clinical trials for China’s CNBG vaccine. Algeria has instead chosen to purchase the Russian “Sputnik V” vaccine. Both vaccines are in the latter stages of clinical testing, even though Russia has already claimed success.
The global race to develop COVID-19 vaccines is escalating. It began to turn into a frenzied rush after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on August 11 the country’s Sputnik V vaccine to be the first proven inoculation. However, Russia’s vaccine is still undergoing important final trials.
Many analysts see nationalist and capitalist incentives driving the rush to produce the first vaccine. “I think there’s a big rush, a somewhat nationalistic rush and also somewhat capitalistic rush as well,” Professor Richard Peto of Oxford University told the Guardian. “It will actually make it more difficult to evaluate other vaccines,” he stated while adding, “we really do need quite strong evidence of efficacy.”
Protests emerged in Johannesburg after a local university partnered with Oxford to start Africa’s first clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine in July. “We are not guinea pigs,” protesters said. Now that vaccines have reached the third stage, where larger groups of people take the vaccine, opinions are changing about taking part in trials.
Morocco is one of the countries where a new vaccine is undergoing testing. Thousands of Moroccan volunteers are taking the vaccine developed by Chinese laboratory Sinopharm CNBG. By cooperating in the vaccine development process, Morocco will have earlier access to an eventual final vaccine and hopes to manufacture the drugs locally.
In the race for vaccines, Algeria has taken a different route than Morocco. According to the North Africa Journal, the Pasteur Institute of Algeria has welcomed a team of Russian researchers representing their country’s government to negotiate purchasing the vaccine.
Yet both the Chinese and Russian vaccines have yet to clear the final hurdle of clinical trials. In the last stage of vaccine development, large groups take the drug to test for side effects or health risks. Algeria’s choice to discuss purchasing large quantities of the Russian vaccine is a risk, as trial results could disprove its efficacy after the order is already placed. Morocco, in contrast, is helping with the scientific process to realize an effective vaccine, without running the risk of purchasing a faulty or dangerous drug.
Both Morocco and Algeria are taking a proactive approach in the race for vaccines, although their risks differ. Whatever the outcome of the Chinese and Russian drugs might be, both nations are actively working to ensure citizens get a working vaccine. The need for vaccines is apparent as Algeria continues to see hundreds of new cases, while Morocco is frequently recording more than 1,000 new infections daily.
Fears over the distribution of vaccines are legitimate. Rich Western countries have already implied that they will ensure vaccines first go to their populations. These developments make it ever more important for countries in the Maghreb region to find ways to procure early access as well. While much remains unclear, Morocco and Algeria at least appear proactive in ensuring adequate vaccines are made available when they pass the final clinical trials.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
Even if one or more vaccines emerge that promise to make people less susceptible to COVID-19, the public-health problem will not be eliminated. But policymakers can avert some foreseeable problems by starting to address key questions about financing and distribution now, argues Richard Haass.
The global toll of the COVID-19 pandemic is enormous: more than a half-million lives lost, hundreds of millions out of work, and trillions of dollars of wealth destroyed. And the disease has by no means run its course; hundreds of thousands more could well die from it.
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations
Not surprisingly, there is tremendous interest in the development of a vaccine, with more than a hundred efforts under way around the world. Several look promising, and one or more may bear fruit – possibly faster than the several years or longer it normally takes to bring a vaccine online.
But even if one or more vaccines emerge that promise to make people less susceptible to COVID-19, the public-health problem will not be eliminated. As any medical expert will attest, vaccines are not panaceas. They are but one tool in the medical arsenal.
No vaccine can be expected to produce complete or lasting immunity in all who take it. Millions will refuse to get vaccinated. And there is the brute fact that there are nearly eight billion men, women, and children on the planet. Manufacturing eight billion doses (or multiples of that if more than one dose is needed) of one or more vaccines and distributing them around the globe could require years, not months. These are all matters of science, manufacturing, and logistics. They are sure to be difficult. But the politics will be at least as challenging.
For starters, who will pay for any vaccine? Companies will expect to recoup their investment in research and development, along with the costs of production and distribution. That is already tens of billions of dollars (and possibly much more) – before the question of profit is even introduced. There is also the related question of how companies that develop a vaccine will be compensated if they are required to license the patents and know-how to producers elsewhere.
The toughest political question of all, though, is likely to concern access. Who should receive the initial doses of any vaccine? Who determines who is allowed into the queue and in what order? What special advantages accrue to the country where a vaccine is developed? To what extent will wealthier countries crowd out poorer ones? Will countries let geopolitics intrude, sharing the vaccine with friends and allies while forcing vulnerable populations in adversary countries to the back of the line?
At the national level, every government should start to think through how it will distribute those vaccines it produces or receives. One idea would be to administer it first to health-care workers, followed by police, firefighters, the military, teachers, and other essential workers. Governments must also consider what priority to give those at higher risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19, such as the elderly and those with preexisting conditions. Should a vaccine be free to some or all?
At the international level, the questions are even more complex. We need to make sure that production can be scaled rapidly, that rules are in place for availability, and that sufficient funds are pledged so that poorer countries are covered. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organization, several governments, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have formed the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility. Its creators propose that any effective vaccine that emerges be treated as a global public good, to be distributed equally around the world, regardless of where it was invented or of a country’s ability to pay. The WHO has put forward a global allocation framework that seeks to ensure priority for the most vulnerable populations and health-care workers.
But such approaches may be unrealistic. It is not just that the COVAX effort lacks adequate funding, the participation of the United States and China, and clear authority. It is that all governments are sure to come under enormous pressure to take care of their own citizens first. Vaccine nationalism is almost certain to win out over vaccine multilateralism.
Recent history reinforces this skepticism. COVID-19 emerged in China and quickly became a worldwide problem. Responses, though, have been mostly along national lines. Some countries have fared relatively well, thanks to their existing public health systems and political leadership; with others, it has been just the opposite.
Continuing this national-level approach to a vaccine is a recipe for disaster. Only a handful of countries will be able to produce viable vaccines. The approach must be global. The reasons are not just ethical and humanitarian, but also economic and strategic, as global recovery requires collective improvement.
In Iraq, when military progress outpaced planning for the US-led war’s aftermath, the result was chaos, or “catastrophic success.” We cannot afford an analogous outcome here, with success in the laboratory outpacing planning for what comes next. Governments, companies, and nongovernmental organizations need to come together quickly, be it in the COVAX initiative, under the auspices of the United Nations or the G20, or somewhere else. Global governance comes in all shapes and sizes. What is essential is that it comes. The lives of millions, the economic welfare of billions, and social stability everywhere hang in the balance.
Richard N. Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, previously served as Director of Policy Planning for the US State Department (2001-2003).
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry
