Ensure corona vaccine for all at affordable price

IN the case of Covid-19 vaccination, Bangladesh will have to vaccinate approximately 162 million people rapidly, which would be extremely challenging with the existing immunisation programme. The existing capacity only allows vaccination of around 4 million annually.
Even if Bangladesh gets required Covid-19 vaccines from Oxford University or other sources, it can’t vaccinate more than 162 million people within a year. For mass vaccination against the often lethal virus, the country needs to deliver vaccines to people countrywide at a scale and speed never thought before. Every year, nearly four million children get antigens. This is perhaps the maximum capacity of mass vaccination in the country.
It will require 10 years or more to bring all the population irrespective of ages under coverage if the mass vaccination begins with the existing capacity, say local experts. That is why the whole immunisation programme needs to be re-engineered, particularly the cold chain which is mandatory to preserve the valuable vaccines, they add.
Researchers at the University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University have collaborated with their counterparts at BRAC University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) to assess the capacity and preparedness of Bangladesh’s cold chain logistics. The outcome is expected to create a blueprint to help ensure a cost-effective model for blanket Covid-19 vaccination.
A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain. To store, manage and transport life-saving vaccines, it takes a chain of precisely coordinated events, maintaining a desired low-temperature range. Although Bangladesh has one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and vaccine industries, with a vaccination framework supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the WHO, the country lacks the capacity to deliver fast-track mass vaccination.
In no area has the government been able to show success in capacity building. During this most dangerous pandemic our government has not built the capacity to make available free distribution of masks and tests. Rich countries are obligated to do.
The government has no reason to bother. Every failure is accepted as success and the government goes on complacently as it likes. Still we would like to hope that for the reason of saving lives vaccine would be available as soon as possible and at a price affordable.