EDITORIAL: After taking off very nicely the vaccination drive seems to be giving authorities their first reasons to worry. Initially, when vaccine hesitancy was unsurprisingly very common, the few elderly people that made their way to vaccination centres were given their first jabs within minutes and spoke very highly of the first-class treatment they received. Even people that hadn’t registered were accommodated with no questions asked. That, and the fact that the third wave of the coronavirus is spreading very fast across the country, caused a lot more people to show up for their shots and now seems to be putting more strain on the machinery than it can sustain without much trouble.
The most obvious one is that since only a limited number of people can be allowed inside centres where the vaccinations are delivered at any particular time, because of social distancing protocols, large queues that form outside of old, often ailing, people as the weather is worsening not only cause much discomfort but also make for the perfect conditions for the virus to spread among the most vulnerable part of the population. There is also more confusion now. For example, the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) announced that people over 70 can walk in after only registering themselves by sending an SMS to the required number, yet they are still being asked to produce a PIN code that is obtained from NADRA. That of course means that is not exactly a walk-in facility just yet.
It seems that the government has been caught somewhat off guard by the third wave and is stuck half-way between being proactive and reactive. Earlier, when the going was better than it is now, it calculated that the doses of vaccines that are being gifted by China, in addition to the World Health Organisation (WHO)-backed COVAX scheme for poor countries, would be enough to do the job nicely. Now it has been forced to buy 1.6 million doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines, which will be delivered in a few days, and negotiations are under way with the same companies for purchase of seven million more. There’s also much controversy about the earlier decision to allow private companies to import and deliver the vaccines without a cap on the sale price, which quite naturally drew widespread condemnation. Considering the circumstances this decision can only be attributed to criminal disregard of ground realities and it was only fitting that the decision was revoked.
Let’s not forget that Pakistan has a drug price control system, and the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) forwards recommendations to the cabinet on such matters, and the final decision is then taken. For such policy to be announced, through an early morning tweet by an overzealous official is simply unacceptable and needs to be investigated very seriously. Now who knows if some private sector companies didn’t pay above market price to jump the queue, so to speak, and acquire the vaccines ahead of others just because they were confident about getting whatever price they liked in the desperate home market? The product is, after all, in very limited supply and disruptions in deliveries have even begun straining relations among countries. So whoever issued the statement about giving the private sector a free hand in terms of setting prices, and caused so much confusion and an embarrassing retreat on the part of the government, needs to be taken to task for all to see.
Whatever is the nature of problems that are hindering the vaccination effort they need to be addressed very quickly. There is a very long way to go and already our expectations, about how much doses will be needed by which time, have been upset rather badly. After frontline workers and senior citizens, the largest part of the population will take its turn. That is when a lot more pressure will be put on the system and there’s no telling yet how much better, or worse, in terms of more cases and deaths the third wave would have become by then. Therefore there is a need to learn important lessons at every stage of the effort, just like all other countries are doing. The government must do whatever is necessary to return to the initial success story of the vaccination drive.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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