EDITORIAL: As the death toll from Covid-19 crossed the grim 10,000 mark the National Command and Operation Centre held a special meeting on Thursday to discuss the availability and efficient administration of Covide-19 vaccine. A day earlier, the government had announced its decision to book 1.1 million doses of the vaccine from a Chinese state-owned company, which would be in addition to non-disclosure agreements worth $250m signed last month with various multinational companies. Once the vaccine is procured, like in other countries, the first to be inoculated will be the frontline health workers, and in the second and third phases the most vulnerable sections of the population: people above 65 and 60 years of age.
Meanwhile, speaking at the Karachi Press Club, Dr Zafar Mirza, former adviser to the prime minister on national health services, made three important observations that need to be given serious consideration. First, he said that the vaccine may be administered to only 20 percent of the population by the end of the first quarter of 2021. Considering the prevalence of culture of entitlements, he cautioned that since at the initial stage the vaccine would not be available in the private sector, it needs to be ensured that only deserving people get inoculated on priority basis. Next, he warned that even as the second wave seems to be receding, a highly contagious variant of the virus first detected in the UK has arrived in Pakistan. Notably, out of the six recent returnees from the UK, three have been tested positive for the variant. Although, according to public health authorities in that country, the new variant does not cause more severe disease or increased mortality, they also say efforts are on to understand it better. In any event, the governments at centre and in the provinces need to do all that is necessary for strict implementation of SOPs.
Dr Mirza, who is an adviser to the World Health Organization on universal public health, also called for adding the right to health to the fundamental rights listed in the Constitution. Nonetheless, even if that right is incorporated in the supreme law of the land there is no guarantee it would be honoured. After all, the Constitution says the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all 5-16 year old children as a fundamental right. Yet 22.8 million children remain out of school, making Pakistan the least literate nation in the entire South Asian region. What is needed, therefore, is for the ruling elites to realize that investment in healthcare is necessarily not only to save ordinary lives; it is an investment in human capital development as healthier workers increase productivity and hence economic progress and prosperity. Paucity of resources is no excuse as there are several examples from middle income countries where governments have successfully introduced schemes to provide health cover to their entire populations. Pakistan can do the same, provided there is a strong new political commitment to assign priority to public health as well as education.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021