Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
When the countries around the world, especially the developing ones, are desperately seeking priority access to a Covid-19 vaccine, China has appeared till now is the only country offering help with an effective vaccine to the vulnerable nations who urgently need to halt the pandemic that has left devastating impact on their economies and threatened livelihood of millions of people.
To have the easy access to the vaccine, China is also offering a billion dollar loan to Latin American and Caribbean countries for them to buy its Covid-19 vaccine. Latin America is currently the region hardest-hit by the virus, with Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Chile among the world’s 10 worst-hit nations.
Though many world leaders and health experts welcomed China’s offer, but unfortunately some Western countries and their media outlets have showed reservation citing it (China’s offer) nothing but merely a “vaccine diplomacy.”
“China claims itself pioneer in vaccine race, and has tackled the coronavirus outbreak in its states which appeared as a surprise to many Western countries. So, the Western nations are looking closely at the China’s affair to develop a Covid-19 vaccine and its intention to distribute it countries around the world,” Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, Professor of International Relations at the University of Dhaka told The New Nation.
Dr. Imtiaz observed the Western countries have miserably failed to contain the virus and remained at backstage in a vaccine race although they have had advance science and technology. On the other hand, China showed its scientific prowess tackling the virus and developing vaccines that put the country potentially in a hugely influential position in global state.
Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed said when nations around the globe are desperately seeking early access to a Covid-19 vaccine, Beijing appears with a humanitarian gesture by offering the much-expected vaccine it produced to smaller and developed countries to help them fight against the deadly virus. “So whatever the Western world denote it… It will be regarded as a great contribution to all mankind,” he noted.
Earlier, Chinese top officials announced that Covid-19 vaccine is to be used as a global public product once it is developed and deployed in China.
“As China is committed to ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries, Bangladesh should also take the opportunity. At the same time, it should keep other windows open for early vaccination for its large population,” said Dr. Imtiaz Ahmed, who is also a Director of Centre for Genocide Studies at the Dhaka University.
He said local pharmaceutical companies have gained huge reputation in global arena by exporting drugs to many countries. Bangladesh should look for producing vaccine locally in collaboration with China capitalizing their expertise and know-how.
Currently, numerous Chinese companies are working on developing Covid-19 vaccines with nine have candidates in human trials, in more than one country. Of them, the three leading players are Sinovac, CanSino Biologics and Sinopharm. These vaccine developers have already ramped up their production capacity. Bangladesh last week approved Sinovac’s phase 3 clinical trials here.
“Beijing’s top officials and some drugmakers have begun promising early vaccine access to vulnerable countries. But China has to care for its 1.4 billion people first and bring them under vaccination once a Covid-19 vaccine is developed. So, there will be a limited supply for other nations. Keeping this in mind, Bangladesh government should sign deal with other manufactures to easily gain access to a Covid-19 vaccine,” former World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Advisor Dr Muzaherul Huq, told The New Nation.
He also said that Bangladesh can also approach Russia for Covid-19 vaccine as Russia has also claimed success in producing the corona vaccine. It will be a diversity of vaccine sources for Bangladesh to tackle the virus utilizing other options.
The government is planning to use Tk 8,000 crore of Tk 10,000 crore allocated in the current fiscal budget for tackling the Covid-19 pandemic to purchase vaccines.
“An early access to a Covid-19 vaccine is now a burning issue for Bangladesh. The government should ink pact with China because it has already authorised emergency usage of Covid-19 vaccines developed by some selected domestic companies,” said former director (Disease Control) of DGHS Be-Nazir Ahmed.
The coronavirus has so far infected more than 24 million people across the globe and caused 800,000 fatalities since the outbreak first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
