Among the ten most populous countries in the world, only one has not yet started vaccination against Covid-19: Nigeria. However, the number of doses administered in many of these poorer countries is not sufficient for even 5% of its inhabitants, considering only the first dose.
All vaccines currently in use require two doses to ensure full effectiveness. The only single-dose vaccination, manufactured by Janssen, has not yet received emergency clearance in any country.
Bangladesh, the ninth of ten with the most residents to start vaccination, began its campaign on Sunday (7), and plans to inoculate 3.5 million people with the AstraZeneca vaccine in one month.
In the United States, the third most populous country, 41 million doses have been applied, which equates to one dose for about 12.4% of its population (although the CDC reported that 9.1 million people have already received both doses).
Indonesia, in fourth place in the population rankings, applied vaccines only for the first dose of 0.01% of its population. In India, they administered equivalent doses to only 0.43% of the population and in Mexico, 0.5% of the total.
Pakistan began its campaign on Wednesday (3) after receiving 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine as a gift from China. For now, only health professionals will be vaccinated, and mass vaccination is still two months away.
Some countries apply the first and second doses to healthcare professionals, and only the first to others, usually the elderly, co-morbid patients and other groups considered to be at risk. As this varies, it is not possible to specify the number of vaccinated in each location.
China, although it has developed and manufactured several vaccines, has so far only administered doses equivalent to 2.2% of its population of 1.39 billion.
In Brazil, according to data compiled by the vehicle consortium of which Folha is a member, 3.5 million doses were administered, or 1.6% of the population.
Compared to more developed and less populated countries, the progress of vaccination in these countries is meager. Israel leads with 62.9 doses per 100 population, followed by the UK with 17.6 and the US with 11.8.
There are many obstacles for countries with more population and less income: difficulty in obtaining the necessary doses, because in the midst of health nationalism, wealthy governments have bought most vaccines in advance; product preservation problems when refrigeration logistics are deficient; Cost; and rumors about vaccines that frighten the population.
In Bangladesh, the government planned to immunize a much larger number of people in that first month, around 6 million, but with only 328,000 people registered, it reduced the target. The country received 5 million of the 30 million doses it ordered from the Serum Institute in India, in addition to the 2 million units donated by the Indian government.
“I call on people not to pay attention to rumors and to get vaccinated,” said the country’s Minister of Health Zahid Maleque.
In Indonesia, the government has taken a different approach: it has started vaccinating people aged 18 to 59, who are more economically active, who are more likely to spread the virus, although they are less vulnerable to the form the most serious of the disease.
Vaccination of people over the age of 60 will not begin until Monday (8), using Coronavac.
In Nigeria, the government has not even given an estimate for when the vaccination will start, only saying it is trying to get the doses by the end of February.
On Friday (5), the director general of the WHO (World Health Organization), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called on the rich countries to suspend their vaccination programs when they have already protected health professionals and the most vulnerable and to allow the use of vaccinations by the poorest. countries.
So far, more than three quarters of vaccinations have been carried out in just 10 countries, which account for 60% of global GDP. At the same time, more than 100 countries, home to 2.5 billion people, have not received a dose to date, the WHO director said.