Remove people’s concern over Covid-19 vaccine

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen telephoned his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar on Tuesday, urging him to ensure the supply of Covid-19 vaccine as per the agreement, the foreign ministry said in a press release. The press release, however, did not mention whether there was any assurance about the vaccine supply form Indian side.

The foreign minister’s phone call has revealed Bangladesh's deep concern over the vaccine. Our policymakers are just as responsible as the Serum Institute of India about the matter. Last year the government of Bangladesh and Beximco Pharmaceuticals Limited signed a tripartite agreement with Serum Institute of India on the supply of 30 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines. A consignment of 5 million doses a month was supposed to be delivered within 6 months. Payment for 15 million doses was made beforehand. But Serum delivered only 7 million doses in the last four months. India stopped export of vaccines after the demand for vaccines increased there following the second wave of coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, news agency Reuters, quoting Indian sources, said India is unlikely to resume major exports of Covid-19 vaccines until October. Serum may restart deliveries to COVAX and other countries by the end of this year.

Naturally, uncertainty has arisen over Bangladesh receiving. Some 1.3 million to 1.4 million people who have already taken the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines won’t get the second dose. A second dose of Covid-19 vaccines is required to take within the 8-12 weeks of receiving a first dose. In this case, if the aforementioned amount of AstraZeneca vaccines don’t arrive by June, these people will be in a problem. According to experts, if these people are inoculated with the vaccine of any new company, they will have to get two shots again.

The government has been trying its best to collect vaccines from various sources in China, Russia and United States after Serum stopped the vaccine supply. A deal has also been made with China. But when and how many vaccines will arrive hasn’t been revealed by any parties. China has gifted 500,000 doses of vaccines to Bangladesh. The government said another 106,000 doses of Pfizer-developed vaccines will arrive on 2 June under the global COVAX initiative. These are far less than required. We need millions of doses whereas we are getting only 600,000.

Public health experts, at a virtual meeting organised by Study Group on Regional Affairs on Tuesday, said depending on a sole source has created the crisis of vaccine. Some 250-260 million doses of vaccines are required to implement the government plan to vaccinate 80 per cent of population. Depending on import only will not work for this huge amount of vaccines. India stopped vaccine supply because of its domestic crisis even after signing an agreement. Where is the guarantee that another country will not do so in future? So the sooner vaccine manufacture starts in the country, the better. People are concerned over getting the vaccine. If the government can’t provide the vaccine right now, they must say when they can.