Is Philippines Prioritized For Vaccine? Experts Believe Poorer Countries Won’t Be
PHILIPPINES VACCINE PRIORITY – Following news of successful COVID-19 vaccines, will the Philippines even get prioritized in getting it?
Pfizer recently announced their vaccine to be 95% effective against the new coronavirus. Furthermore, the Philippines had also begun setting up for procurement of the vaccines.
However, with Pfizer hoping to produce up to 50 million doses in 2020 and 1.3 billion doses in 2021, will the Philippines even get the vaccine? Naturally, analysts such as Rachel Silverman, a policy analyst at the Center for Global Development think-tank said wealthy countries would get the vaccine first.
According to Silverman, this would most likely include big countries such as the UK and the US. Furthermore she added:
There is very little likelihood that it will make it to low- and middle-income countries by the end of next year, at least in any significant numbers for mass vaccination…
Just doing the math… you can see it’s not enough to go around
Moreover, Pfizer already said they could begin vaccine distribution before Christmas. However, according to an article from the BBC, there wouldn’t be enough to go around for “middle-income countries”.
Based on a study from the University of Asia and the Pacific, the Philippines, as of 2020, is currently a “lower-middle-income country”.
Still, procurement of the Vaccine from a lower-income country isn’t impossible, says the analysts. For now, we just have to wait until the production to see if any kind of deal is made between the Philippines and vaccine manufacturers.
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