WITH the third wave of coronavirus pandemic tearing across the country, the arrival of another 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm Vaccine from China is welcome news. Like the first batch, this one is too is a gift from the Chinese Government. On the top of that, the first consignment of the Privately imported Russian Spunkit V reached Karachi on Wednesday although it will be a few weeks before batches are dispatched to government approved inoculation Centres. Another Chinese Vaccine, the one shot consino, is expected by the end of the month.
It is essential that Pakistan purchase sufficient doses to inoculation enough of Its population so that herd immunity can be achieved given that the vaccination campaign got off to a somewhat lethargic start, With even many health Professionals — Who were eligible in the first Phase — reluctant to receive their jabs, the government needs to put more effort into getting public buy–in. According to government data, in the first two weeks only 32,582 frontline healthcare workers out of 78,000 in Sindh got their Sinopharm shot, With other provinces doing even worse. Until a few days ago, only 240,000 out of an estimated 8M Pakistanis over 65 years of age had registered vaccination; that works out to 3pc of those eligible vaccine aversion, mainly arising from misinformation and mistrust of official data, is a very real problem in this Country — although one might have hoped the health community had more confidence in a Scientifically proven procedure. With inoculation centres largely carrying out their task Smoothly, and more first–hand accounts available about the vaccine causing few to no Side effects, the pace may pick up. I Nevertheless, this is an area that the authorities should look to pay more attention to. On a related note, the government has made a sound decision in revising its earlier intention to not place a price cap on Privately imparted Vaccine. That would likely have put the Jab out of reach of all but the most Well–Heeled Pakistanis..
