Week 42 - a mixed bag for Tassy as Pakistan readies itself for the vaccine

Edited bY

G P Kennedy

Tassy - Karachi, Pakistan

This week I was thrilled to read that the vaccination drive was officially launched in Pakistan. Health care workers across all four provinces received their first jabs.

The plan is to get everyone inoculated by the year-end. This however sounds a tad unrealistic to me, but then hey...I never thought the vaccines would arrive here by early February. Pakistan’s population currently stands at 220 million people. 

But being the country with the youngest population in the world, almost half of that number is under the age of 18 and hence not eligible for the vaccine. 

Experts believe that a population reaches herd immunity if 70% of the people have been either infected by the virus or have been administered the vaccine. 

So that still means a staggering number still need to be vaccinated.

Currently, the only vaccine we have in hand is half a million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine gifted to us by China. 

Procurement of the other vaccines will be through COVAX co-led by GAVI (the Global Alliance of Vaccines and Immunisations), bilaterally from a manufacturing country, and lastly from the private sector. 

Over the next few weeks, it will be clearer where the vaccines will be coming from.

It is unlikely that for poor countries like Pakistan, we will have access to the Pfizer vaccination which requires special storage and refrigeration.

The more difficult situation on hand will be however persuading reluctant citizens to get the inoculations. 

Many countries are fighting the anti-vaxxer movement but Pakistan has a strong anti-western sentiment around inoculations. 

This is fueled by conspiracy theories pushed by hard-line religious groups and spread across social media.

Pakistan is still struggling to convince a large proportion of its uneducated population to take Polio drops and remains one of the two countries in the world where Polio has still not been eradicated (the other being Afghanistan.)  

For the time being though rather than getting caught up in the how’s and why’s, on a personal front I am concentrating on getting my life back on track after my children’s visit and departure. 

The house has become quiet again and my dog has been showing signs of anxiety at the stillness in the house. 

Other than my Zoom yoga classes that continued as normal I spent this week on condolence calls visiting friends who have lost parents in the few weeks gone by. 

It felt strange seeing them in their time of grief, sitting 6 feet away, where I couldn’t even give them a hug.  

My husband and I resumed our weekly meeting of the same bubble of friends on the weekend for a drink and a meal, careful to sit outdoors and maintain our distances. 

 The weather here still remains lovely and cool and the very cold snap seems to have got over. Flowers are blooming everywhere and the sun is shining. I feel a slight glimmer of hope, though I know it is still a long, long way away.