Rich countries buying up most Covid-19 vaccines

We are concerned at the way rich countries are buying up the vast majority of the world's Covid-19 vaccines. While the rich countries, with 14 percent of the world's population, have secured 53 percent of the most promising vaccines, nine out of 10 people in 70 low-income countries are unlikely to be vaccinated for Covid-19 next year, according to an alliance of international campaigners. Unfortunately, the poor countries have already been enduring inadequate access to coronavirus testing and treatment facilities, and now they may also face discrimination in getting vaccines.

While high-risk groups in Britain received the first shots of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday, most people in 67 low- and lower-middle-income countries, including Bhutan, Ethiopia and Haiti, risk being left behind.

Amid this situation, we must be ready as a country to secure enough doses of vaccines for our people. As we know, the government has struck deals to buy 68 million doses of vaccines from Gavi under a global arrangement called COVAX and another 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India via Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. According to sources at the Directorate General of Health Services, the first shipment of the doses from Gavi should reach here between February and June 2021, while vaccines from Serum may arrive by February 2021.

Now, the major challenges for the government would be to make sure the vaccines reach the country in time and are administered to the people properly. Unfortunately, the government is yet to publish its vaccine distribution plan which will decide who will be given priority in getting vaccinated. Moreover, we still have not arranged separate facilities to store the Covid-19 vaccines at the upazila level, without which people living in rural areas may not get the vaccines timely. Therefore, it is highly likely that poor people will face disparity in getting vaccinated if we do not have a proper action plan on distributing the vaccines.

While Bangladesh should increase its capacity to store and administer the vaccines properly, the government should also communicate with other countries for getting more vaccines for our people. The prime minister recently gave a proposal at the UN about transferring technology for local manufacturing of vaccines in developing countries, which should be considered seriously by the countries that have already developed the vaccines. If a positive decision is taken in this regard, Bangladesh can develop vaccines not only for its own people but can also provide vaccines to other countries. That way, Bangladesh can also help in efforts to remove the disparity to be faced by poor countries in getting vaccines.