Covid Vaccination Program

Slow pace in vaccination
Delays process of restoration.
A vaccine for the poors
Wins the next pandemic’s rigors.

Covid vaccination program in Bangladesh is going on smoothly and slowly. Bangladesh is perhaps one of the few countries in the developing world that started mass-vaccination program pretty early. Detection rate rose to 32% back in July 2021; in October it came down to below 2%.¹However, in terms of number people vaccinated, Bangladesh lags behind many countries in South and South East Asia. It is slightly ahead than Myanmar.

Source:Data credit internet.Infographics credit Rezaul Hoque

Restriction on ingredient ban,financing and logistics challenges delayed the mass vaccination program, causing woes to general people and embarrassment to government. But financial support came in thick and fast.

Vaccine commitment was reneged following news reports divulging nitty-gritty of the deal. Government took credit from multilateral donor agencies to finance this vast vaccination program.

Free donation of vaccines by few developed countries contributed little to mitigate the vaccine shortage as the demand is huge. So government cut some sort of deal with several vaccine producers that got WHO approval to procure the vaccine.

But students, migrant workers and others faced obstacles to get the required vaccine. Migrant workers could not go back to the Middle Eastern countries as the countries did not allow Chinese or Russian vvaccineThe issue was settled when they relaxed the condition. But later lack of RT PCR machines at Bangladeshi airports further obstructed migrant worker’s scheduled travel to UAE and other countries. It increased their ordeals.

Many schoolgoers and university students also had troubles to get vaccine. Government decided to give them special NID card to let them avail the vaccine.

Initially, the response from the people was mute. When Delta started to wreck havoc this year, registration for the vaccine spiked. As there was little supply ,government could not carry out the vaccination at the scale it had earlier anticipated. Many waited months to get the first shot.

Government first vaccinated frontline workers and the higher risk groups who are susceptible to catch Covid. Later the condition was relaxed and schoolgoers were included in the list.

Long queues before the vaccination centers indicated how eager people were to get a vaccine.

I would like to share my own experience here. I registered for vaccine back in July. Meanwhile, I fell victim to dengue. I did not do any test. But symptoms hinted to dengue: high fever at regular intervals, fatigue, head ache,muscle pain , pain at knee and elbow etc.Last year, in April, I also had Covid-like symptoms: fever, head ache,loss of smell and taste,measles like rash etc. It was mild and it was in the midst of first lockdown so I did not bother to do the test. Last year in November or December, I also experienced those mild Covid-like symptoms. I got recovered pretty soon. Dengue experience made me a little nervous and the delay made me worried. Having waited more than two months, I called both IEDCR and MIS department of Ministry of Health. IEDCR advised me to contact the center I chose during registration while MIS department told me to wait as the software was designed to sort the priority and fixing the date for vaccination. I listened to MIS. Exactly, two months and twenty two days later I got an SMS for the first dose. The queue was long for the first dose seekers. Everyone had to bring their vaccine card. I got Vero Cell,manufactured by SinoPharm. The queue disappeared within hours of commencement of vaccination. Now I wait second dose for the vaccine.

Back in July in the wake of Delta variant spread ,I wrote a piece titled “Delta Wrecks Havoc”. I share some parts here:

Commitment to finance vaccination program is plenty. But it is not clear how many doses one individual requires as variant after variant doing their damage. For poorer countries it is not possible to purchase additional booster shot that costs more than $ 10 . Local production could be a solution as cost will be reduced significantly. Despite repeated pleas of calling the vaccine a global public good and relaxing the TRIPS laws, no progress has been made. This will give fresh fuel to protectionism and globalization will receive another blow. Moreover, critics of globalization will point out that it is a one way track and in terms of crisis this globalization does not work for poorer countries. So a vaccine for the poor is a must. As deadly variants loom large and new bout of wave may wreck havoc, an ideal vaccine should not cost more than couple of dollars ( under $5 ). As there is no alternative to mass vaccination, cheap credit and grant should be made available to poorer countries so that they can continue the vaccination program at ease.²

Government has created a facility to produce vaccine locally. However, as the intellectual property right is not relaxed ,no vaccine production is anticipated in near future.But there is no denying that to be prepared for next pandemic we have to augment our capacity to produce vaccine locally which we did four decades ago. It is indeed a good news that government mobilized Tk 100 crore for such research activities. Government has to make sure that research projects from Medical Universities and institutes, genuine research physicians, medical equipment manufacturing projects vie for such fund. For policy and socioeconomic research on health issues ,there are ample of funding institutions like Ministry of Planning,corporate NGOs and other public health organizations at home and abroad. There is no need to allocate fund from Tk 100 crore on policy research.

Government intends to vaccinate 80% 0f the population by 2022. In this regard,govt has to increase the procurement process and to speed up the vaccination program. Current detection rate is not convincible as a large part of the population stays outside vaccination and many have tendency not to do a screening test with the arrival of vaccine. That is why many countries still put us into red list. To make the Covid related stat convincible, government should allow other organization to keep a tab on COVID related records.

Notes And References:

1 “Covid: Deshe Shonakto Dine 300er Niche,Mrityo Nemechhey 6 e(Covid: Detection Below 300 Persons Per Day,Number of Death Below 6)”,bdnews24.com,October 16,2021 Link here

2 “Delta Wrecks Havoc”,Rezaul Hoque,July 02,2021,https://hoquedtake.blogspot.com,Link here