Unconquered Peaks

However you feel about Mondays, it cannot be denied that the past three have been an exciting time for the world of immunology. On Monday 23rd November, for the third Monday in a row, we received news of another promising anti-COVID-19 vaccine trial. This time it was Oxford University and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca hailing the good news. The press release announced that their vaccine was 70% effective against COVID-19, drawing from Phase 2 and 3 trials in Britain and Brazil.

The Arab Spring was a pro-democracy movement and a series of uprisings that broke the mould in Middle Eastern history, but its momentum didn’t last long before the region reversed into its autocratic and divided state. In both North Africa and the Middle East, by 2010, protestors fought for deep regime changes, for cultural freedom, and for democracy in their nations. First Tunisia and Egypt and then by domino effect, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and many others followed motivated by the short-term successes they saw in neighboring nations.