In a recent conversation with an elderly friend who’d received a COVID-19 vaccination, I asked, “What does it feel like to be vaccinated?” She said, “It feels like we finally matter in this world.” 

What if every human could have immunity against every known disease? No more Zika. No more measles or mumps. No more HIV and so no more AIDS. No more dengue or herpes or ebola. And the bewildering, scary, and so very transmissible COVID-19 is gone from everywhere in the world — including the global south. Wouldn’t that be amazing?

It’s International Development Week, and while Canada’s foreign assistance and development largely prioritizes addressing gender, education, and economic inequality, there is a more pressing type of inequality on the rise.

And that’s immunity inequality. 

Never before has immunity become so inextricably