Why the delay in vaccinating

Bangladesh is passing through the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. According to the official figures, we have lost more than 28,000 people in the last two years. By now, it is clear that the main weapon to fight the pandemic is vaccines. However, Bangladesh has failed to project any significant progress in this regard. More than half the number of the people, who were supposed to be vaccinated in one year as per the government plan, are yet to get the full two doses of the vaccine.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGSH) says that most of the people who died of coronavirus in recent times were not vaccinated. Besides, the government initiatives regarding the vaccine policy have been wrong right from the start. Now the experts are admitting this frankly.

The vaccination drive started on 7 February last year with a target to vaccinate 80 per cent of the people of the country within one year. Last Monday marked the completion of one year since the start of the vaccination drive. A total of 99.1 million or 57 per cent people have got the first dose of the vaccine and about 60 million or 37 per cent people of the country have been administered with both doses.

While evaluating the activities of the DGHS in the last one year, professor Meerjady Sabrina Flora, president of the vaccine related committee of DGHS, told Prothom Alo, “We have done well in vaccinating people. We had some problems regarding the availability of vaccines at the initial stages. But we have overcome that.”

In contrast, according to the figures of DGHS, some 80 per cent of the people who died of coronavirus in January were not vaccinated. Sayedur Rahman, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology at BSMMU, said, “Most of the coronavirus patients dying now are elderly people. The DGHS has failed to bring them under the vaccination programme of the government. There was no effort to vaccinate all the vulnerable people. Bangladesh has a reputation in the world in vaccinating mother and child through the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). But Bangladesh couldn’t use that capacity in case of coronavirus vaccine."

Bangladesh lags behind neighbouring India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives in terms of coronavirus vaccine. Despite the sole dependency on India in vaccine procurement at primary stages and Serum institute’s failure in supplying vaccine as per the agreement, Bangladesh has received a total of 276,723,000 doses of vaccine through procurement and gift. As seen in the last few months, the DGHS always has had million doses of vaccine in stock. On Sunday the stock of vaccine was more than 110 million. Then why is the number of inoculations less than the stock?

Public health experts say the benefit is higher when a large number of people are vaccinated within a short time. If people are vaccinated over a long period of time, then the benefit is much less. The situation at present proves that.