‘Only 20 per cent of Pakistanis likely to receive Covid-19 vaccine this year’

Former special assistant to the prime minister (SAPM) on health Dr Zafar Mirza has said the Covid-19 vaccine is unlikely to be available for the private sector in Pakistan for a long duration and even those who can afford to buy the vaccine will not be able to get themselves inoculated due to the vaccine’s unavailability.

“Only front line healthcare workers, who are dealing with the COVID-19 patients, would be able to get vaccinated in Pakistan by the first quarter of 2021 while as per my estimates, only 20 per cent population of Pakistan would be able to get the vaccine in 2021. In these circumstances, the government should ensure that only deserving people get the vaccine and it is not leaked, stolen or used to vaccinate influential people,” Dr Mirza said as he talked to media persons at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Thursday.

He said the only option to vaccinate most of the Pakistani population was to approach the Chinese authorities and acquire the vaccine whose trials were under way in Pakistan. He asserted that the only preventive measure available to the people of the country was to wear masks and strictly follow the standard operating procedures, like the rest of the world.

Dr Mirza, who is currently serving as an adviser to the World Health Organisation (WHO) on universal health coverage, deplored that both the government and the opposition parties had ‘broken the unwritten consensus’, on which they had reached during the first wave of Covid-19, by holding political rallies during the Gilgit-Baltistan elections and now the opposition was still carrying out rallies that could prove disastrous for the people.

“Unfortunately, during the second wave, neither the people nor the political parties of the country followed the SOPs strictly and took precautionary measures. And on top of that, we have this new strain from the UK, which is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible. We don’t know what this new strain is capable of doing but we need to take preventive and precautionary measures to control its spread.”

He deplored that due to Covid-19, other communicable and non-communicable ailments were being ignored. He informed media persons that in this regard, the WHO had formed a global council for health financing.

Speaking about the universal health coverage, he lamented that the constitution of Pakistan did not recognise the ‘right to health of citizens’ and called for incorporating the right to health of people in it through a constitutional amendment. “During my tenure, universal health coverage was provided to many people, including disabled persons and transgender community,” he remarked.

Speaking about his quitting the government, he said he resigned due to personal reasons as it was becoming difficult for him to work on other projects while holding the public office. He added that whenever somebody tried to bring reforms in any sector, mafias started working against that person.

Pharmaceutical sector

“I can tell you very clearly that a mafia in the pharmaceutical sector started conspiring against me when they learnt that I have started bringing reforms in the pharmaceutical industry. But this is not the reason behind my resignation,” he said.

He added that some front men of the mafia in the pharmaceutical industry lodged a bogus case against him in which he was accused of sending masks abroad. Clarifying that not all the pharmaceutical manufacturers were involved in malpractice, he said there were some pharmaceutical factories in the country that should not be allowed to manufacture medicines.