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Friday, March 29, 2024

Slow vaccine rollout

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"A poor nation like the Philippines has to live with COVID-19 in the meantime and continue to implement harsh lockdown rules pending the arrival of more vaccines."

Poor countries like the Philippines are the last to receive or purchase COVID-19 vaccines from suppliers. Such global inequity is not surprising. The richer nations have the first crack at the available vaccines worldwide because they have the wherewithal to pay for the doses in advance.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque has given an honest answer as to why the vaccine rollout in the Philippines is proceeding at a snail’s pace. Rich nations are hoarding the vaccine supply to protect their own citizens from COVID-19. Says Duque: “Vaccines only arrive in trickles in poor or developing countries like ours. One big problem is the global failure to share vaccines equitably to accelerate our recovery from this pandemic.”

Global data from ourworldindata.org confirmed the secretary’s comments. About 23.5 percent of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 3.08 billion doses have been administered globally. About 40.24 million are now being administered each day. But only 0.9 percent of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose.

The Philippines so far has given 10.4 million doses to its population, with 2.63 million or just 2.4 percent fully vaccinated. In contrast, the US has fully vaccinated 47.2 percent of its population, while Britain has inoculated 49.3 percent of its people. Germany has fully vaccinated 36.6 percent of its population, while Spain has delivered two jabs to 37.3 percent of its people.

Other poor countries do not have the same luck as the richer nations. Egypt has given two doses to just less than 1 percent of its population; Pakistan, 1.6 percent; Bangladesh, 2.6 percent; Iraq, 0.7 percent; and Vietnam, 0.2 percent.

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The relatively high percentage of vaccinated people in developed countries has led their respective governments to reopen their economy faster than those receiving little vaccine supply.

A poor nation like the Philippines, however, has to live with COVID-19 in the meantime and continue to implement harsh lockdown rules pending the arrival of more vaccines. That’s just the way it is.

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