A series of developed countries in the world such as UK, France, Canada, Argentina … announced their plans to receive the first batch of vaccine.
The UK – the first Western country to approve Covid-19, jointly produced by Pfizer (USA) and BioNTech (Germany), plans to begin distributing and vaccinating its citizens today. During the first vaccination, about 50 major hospitals in the UK will receive a total of 800,000 doses of the vaccine made in Belgium, to be used to vaccinate people over the age of 80, health workers and nursing home workers.
The UK Minister of Health expects today to be a start to the end of the Covid-19 pandemic: “On December 8, we deployed Covid-19 vaccine across the UK and that was the day. The start to the end of this pandemic. However, we are still not at that end. It is important for everyone to continue to practice and follow preventive measures. Fortunately, we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
While the UK has a fairly clear first-round vaccination plan, in the US, where the Pfizer company has developed the vaccine, it is only planning to prepare a license.
It is expected that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have a meeting on December 10 to review the urgent licensing application for vaccines by Pfizer and BioNTech. The agency also plans to meet on December 17 to discuss the company’s vaccine Moderna (USA).
Presently, the administration of US President Donald Trump is quite impatient about the licensing of the vaccine, when the disease situation in the US is getting worse and worse. US officials revealed that today, right in a meeting at the White House with the “Speed Campaign”, President Donald Trump will sign an executive order, to ensure all Americans are The vaccine is given first, before it can be distributed internationally. This will be a step to show clearly the competition in the race to get vaccines first among countries.
Currently many countries around the world have also announced their immunization plans, although the licensing has not been conducted.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on December 7 said the first doses of vaccine will arrive in this country in December. “Canada has reached an agreement with Pfizer to initiate early delivery of Covid-19 vaccine doses. Specifically, Canada will receive the first 249,000 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in December. This shipment will be delivered next week. “
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic also announced that the first batch of imported Covid-19 vaccine, with 125,000 doses, will soon be delivered and the people of this country will be vaccinated for free as soon as the European Pharmaceutical Authority Licensed vaccine circulation of two pharmaceutical companies Pfizer of the US and BioNTech of Germany to coordinate production.
The Portuguese government has confirmed that the Covid-19 vaccination program will reach about 10% of the country’s population in the first phase of the plan, starting in January 2021. Meanwhile, in Argentina, President Alberto Fernandez has announced plans to vaccinate Covid-19 for 300,000 people by the end of 2020.
In fact, the developed nations of the world have already had billions of USD Covid-19 vaccine sales with pharmaceutical companies that have been at the forefront of vaccine development before. Plans for early vaccine access have also become clearer. However, the World Health Organization and many countries are still calling for the most equitable access to vaccines and that humanity’s access to vaccines does not depend on where and where they live.
“As countries plan to roll out vaccines in the coming weeks and months, we urge them to give vaccines a priority to those in need,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.