This Covid19 global crisis will not be over for years.
Dr Clare Wenham an assistant professor of global health at the London School of Economics, said the Covid 19 pandemic will not be over until the world’s population is protected. “At the moment, the data is showing that it’s going to be 2023-24 before the global vaccines are distributed to everybody,” she said. “That’s a long time. And distributing some now might be able to get us back to normal life sooner.”
The UK is leading in Europe in vaccines given per capita, followed by Malta, Iceland, Serbia, and Denmark. Israel has now inoculated 20% of its population already.
The Australian government says it expects the first doses of the AstraZenica vaccine to be rolled out on schedule in March.
But what we’ve seen is that the European Union play hardball as promised and seek to deliver vaccines to its own first. No one wants shortages right?
Thankfully as of today we’ve seen the EU and in particular Ireland will enable doses to cross the Northern Ireland border.
Here’s the rollout plan for Australia.
Unlike the rest of the world, New Zealand has no need to rush this rollout. Minister Hipkins discusses it here.
Instead our government is waiting until Medsafe, the national medicine regulator, had scrutinised more data from yet-to-be-completed clinical trials of the vaccines to ensure that they were safe and effective. So we’re aiming for March to start our rollout.
According to Minister Hipkins that first batch will be used to inoculate border na MIQ workers, who are most at risk of contracting Covid19. Makes sense.
I’d definitely like a choice with some hard information about the efficacy differences between the choices of Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Glaxo, AstraZenica (and any other brand).
After that it will be largest immunisation programme we’ve ever had. Rollouts to pop-up clinics at supermarkets and petrol stations and car parks I presume.
But to that point at the top: 2023-2024 for a global rollout will put stark lines of demarcation between which populations can trade and travel easily, and those who can’t. While the rich nations worry about who is going to get theirs first in terms of months, the poor nations will see that social and economic damage last much longer.
As a global inequality driver, that makes the rollout probably bigger than the disease itself.
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