United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called for immediate attention to three global emergencies after listing a long string of threats and challenges the world is facing.

The announcement of the first fully-approved vaccines for COVID-19, the disease at the heart of probably the most pervasive pandemic the world has ever known, came as the proverbial light at the end of a long and particularly dark and death-filled tunnel. Pretty soon however, we learned those first ones (not counting Sputnik, the Russian contribution that presented a different set of problems) were not for everyone. We watched as the light eventually turned into a train, and then as it blew right by us. But it was hardly reason to be discouraged, because ours was on its way.