March 29, 2024

Be quick in acquiring vaccines

The United Kingdom started its Covid-19 vaccination program on Dec. 8. A Filipina nurse administered the Pfizer-BioNTech-manufactured vaccine on an elderly English woman.
Other countries will follow soon.
To compare, the United States has a standing order of 2.6 billion doses, European Union – 2.9 billion, United Kingdom – 507 million.
In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is procuring 450 million doses, Vietnam with 150 million, and the Philippines with 5.2 million initial doses at two shots per recipient – far from the requirement of vaccinating at least 60 percent of the population at 132 million doses to achieve herd immunity.
Our country ought to have a timetable of a vaccination program to quickly acquire adequate vaccines and once available, priority inoculation should be given to those infected so as not to spread the disease, then to health frontliners, and to the young and elderly who are more vulnerable to the coronavirus. — PERCIVAL B. ALIPIT, Baguio City