The story of an 80-year-old musician fighting for a COVID-19 vaccination in Lebanon, a story you cannot miss

Timour Azhari, a correspondant for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, described the struggles of an 80-year-old career musician who sued the lebanese fovernment after lawmakers were allowed to jump the queue to get vaccinated. The tweet of Timour Azhari read, "I want to introduce you all to Joseph al-Hajj, the 80-year-old clarinet player & master musician suing the Lebanese state for his right to a #COVID vaccine after lawmakers jumped the queue.

Joseph learned to play music from his father, pictured below in 1926 in the ancient city of Baalbek when #Lebanon was a French protectorate. Joseph learnt La Marseillaise from his dad and played it for Jaques Chiraq in #Lebanon — “Tres bon, tres bon,” he recalls Chiraq saying.

Here’s Joseph mid-way through his career — spot the mustachioed man with slick black hair playing the wind instrument and spinning it in the air. “The atmosphere was different then, people saw themselves differently. They would shout ‘Joseph al-Hajj is coming!’”

Joseph has been around the world playing music — from Palestine to Europe and the US, where he played for Betty Ford, the wife of the late US President Gerald Ford, in 1975. Here he is (left) posing next to her. He was given honorary citizenship of El Paso, Texas. 

Now, after a year enclosed in his house in the mountains, all Jospeh wants is to get the vaccine so he can go out and play his tunes again. “I hope they give it to me soon," he said. "In the spring, the flowers here bloom and we want to play music and have a drink.""

Such an accoladed artist deserves recogntion for his art and the right to timely vaccine.

(THREAD) I want to introduce you all to Joseph al-Hajj, the 80-year-old clarinet player & master musician suing the Lebanese state for his right to a #COVID vaccine after lawmakers jumped the queue

Read: https://t.co/xwWECLsiNS

Here he is at a family gathering pre-Corona: pic.twitter.com/gS4fkyTVcn

— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) March 9, 2021

 

Now, after a year enclosed in his house in the mountains, all Jospeh wants is to get the vaccine so he can go out and play his tunes again.

“I hope they give it to me soon," he said. "In the spring, the flowers here bloom and we want to play music and have a drink." pic.twitter.com/D9IU9eZYLp

— Timour Azhari (@timourazhari) March 9, 2021