Editor's Note: Pedro Brieger is an Argentine journalist and sociologist, author of several books on international issues and contributor to publications in different countries. He is a professor of Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA). Director of Nodal, a portal dedicated to news from Latin America and the Caribbean. He is a TV columnist on the Argentine channel C5N and on the program "En la Frontera", on PúblicoTV (Spain) and on programs on the Argentine radio stations Radio10, La Red, La Tribu and LT9-Santa Fe. Throughout his career , Brieger has won important awards for his informative work on Argentine radio and television. His Twitter account is @PedroBriegerOk. The opinions expressed in this column belong exclusively to the author. See more opinion articles at CNNe.com/opinion.
(CNN Spanish) - Time is a variable in our lives that has been changing throughout history and, depending on where you live, space and culture modify the senses. Today the world is facing a pandemic and, beyond the measures taken by each country, the need to get a coronavirus vaccine as soon as possible is raised.
Communicable diseases have always existed and in some cases it has taken decades to find a vaccine to alleviate its effects. Unfortunately, for some the formula has not even been found. But in the era of instantaneous technology, which allows the entire planet to communicate to the second, anxiety eats at us.
This is what happens with the need to obtain "the" or "the" vaccines to counteract the effects of the new coronavirus. For millions of people it is the hope to return to a normal life. For some governments and private companies, it is part of an epic commercial and political war that involves fortunes and where the race for exclusivity seems to put aside scientific cooperation.
But vaccines must be tested. And in the age of communication, where with a simple phone you can send a film to the entire planet, it is no longer so simple to "experiment" in remote and hidden lands, as it happened in numerous African territories and even in Australia with aboriginal populations , to cite just a few examples where there was no kind of respect towards people, turned into real guinea pigs.
Vaccines must be tested, there is no doubt about that. The question is how to do it. Several scientists and Nobel Laureates raised their voices asking for volunteers to catch the disease and become real guinea pigs. Taking into account the global spread of the pandemic, it will take thousands of people on various continents willing to expose themselves to the virus to prove the effectiveness of the different vaccines that are being developed. How will you motivate them? With money? Or perhaps, will the pandemic be an opportunity to demonstrate that solidarity can overcome selfishness? Time will tell.