Dr Umair Ashraf
LAST week’s biggest announcement that brought rejoice to the people from all around the globe with stock markets soaring for the first time since Covid-19 pandemic began in March 2020, was the preliminary results of a SARS-Cov-2 vaccine co-developed by Pfizer and Bio N-tech. The vaccine which is completing its Phase 3 trials with over forty-five thousand volunteers involved showed a 90 percent efficacy in controlling the infection with minimal side effects. “The results are really quite good, I mean extraordinary,” pronounced Anthony Fauci, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. With the data preliminary and the vaccine still weeks away from emergency approval by FDA, it was nonetheless a glimpse of hope for people affected by the deadly Corona virus. Since its declaration as a pandemic in March by WHO, Covid-19 has created a havoc across the globe. The global tally of currently infected people has crossed 50 million with the death rate standing at about 2.6 per cent. The pandemic has brought to the knees even the most developed and economically powerful countries in the world including the United States of America, United Kingdom and much of Europe and Asia Pacific.
The response to Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic fallout so far has created a doubt on the globalization of the world and progress towards it in last few decades since the cold war. World Health Organization (WHO) has so far been unable to occupy the position of the leading authority in our fight against the pandemic. The efforts and the resolve shown by the countries against Covid-19 stayed limited to their own. A collective effort and commitment globally is yet to surface. The political will of developed nations across the world to keep the dream of globalization alive has been questioned. They have not been able to pledge debt relief for smaller developing countries and thus the situation in those countries look grievous. Pakistan also falls in the ranks of these countries with an economy under severe crisis and political stability even more lamentable. The incumbent PTI government was able to get through the first wave of pandemic by a swift and conspicuous national response. It has been praised nationally and internationally for its efforts in containing the pandemic. But the economic crisis remains at table and with ongoing political instability; shortage of basic commodities, high inflation, sparse balance of payments and above all impending debt burden, it is going to keep the government under immense pressure over the next months. While the second wave of virus is making strides across the country as I write, the containment of pandemic may reverse.
Prime Minister Imran Khan in early days of the pandemic, sensing the severe economic plight looming over the developing nations, requested the developed countries and international monetary authorities including IMF and World Bank to pledge debt relief and delayed payments for developing countries. But his request got a little highlight at policy making arenas of the world and only a cosmetic decision was done in its favour by waiving off a few small loan repayments. The big announcement of Pfizer and Bio-N-tech’s vaccine has brought happiness across the world but the question here is; Do the third world developing nations look equally overjoyed? The moment the FDA approves the product, Pfizer says in its press release, “we expect to produce globally up to 50 million vaccine doses in 2020 and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021.” If we assume that Pfizer’s vaccine gets approval, mass immunization remains a huge hurdle. The product is unlike any vaccine ever used, for any disease. What is actually injected is messenger RNA (mRNA). But mRNA is very unstable.
To prevent breakdown, it must be stored right up until the time of injection at a temperature of at least -103 degrees Fahrenheit—well below anything a standard freezer unit can manage. Thus maintaining a cold chain seems equally challenging as developing a vaccine. It is bad news for the developing world including Pakistan where health infrastructure offer zero facilities for such mass immunization. Moreover, the economically powerful countries with their greater resources have secured in advance the majority of the vaccine copies under development including one by Pfizer. While the poorer developing world stands out of the loop, the current and future global mass immunization program for Covid-19 vaccines shows a model of hundreds of mouths hovering under a water tap in Sahara desert with water trickling down and dropping in each mouth. The powerful nations have their mouths at the top while the developing ones have ones at the bottom. Water drops trickle down to the bottom and reaching the mouths of third world countries in the last. Pakistan with its current deplorable health infrastructure, lack of national mass immunization facilities and economic and political dilemma has its mouth at the bottom. Will Pakistanis be the last to catch Covid-19 vaccine’s drop?
—The writer is a freelancer who often contributes in national newspapers.
