We ran out of vaccines again, Acting Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama told reporters last Friday, June 11, 2021. This is the third time it happened since we started the vaccination program here.
It can happen again. Like most, if not all, local government units, we are dependent solely on Manila for supply and so far it has been erratic because of the limited amount of vaccines available in the market. The yawning gap between vaccine production and demand worldwide has not narrowed and it will probably stay so for the next 12 months.
Last Thursday, a little over 2.27 million doses of Pfizer vaccines arrived in Manila, the biggest shipment that we have received so far. The vaccines came from Covax, the institution funded by wealthy countries led by the United States to assure the even distribution of vaccines among poorer countries. That means us, among others.
The vaccines like previous Pfizer arrivals are free. It is embarrassing that until now we have to rely on the benevolence of others to be able to safeguard and promote public health, but this is hardly the time to contemplate national pride. Whatever is offered, we will gladly accept.
We can only therefore cheer the announcement by US President Joe Biden that his government will purchase 500 million doses from Pfizer for donation to poorer countries through the Covax. At the bargain price of $7 per dose, the donation will cost Uncle Sam $3.5 billion. I will not dare hazard a guess as to how much the amount is in Philippine pesos under the current rate of exchange. Let’s just say that it must be much.
The donation will come with no strings attached, the US government announced. If it was meant to be a dig at one or two particular countries, I will leave to your imagination.
Most of the newly arrived Pfizer vaccines will be used in the National Capital Region and its immediate neighbors. Cebu will get 210,600 doses, the same quantity reserved for Davao. The rest of the country will not get any allocation since they do not have the storage facilities required for the easily perishable Pfizer vaccines.
That is obviously the same reason for the earlier announcement that the vaccines will be administered only in Metro Cebu. They should be arriving tomorrow at the latest in time for the resumption of our vaccination activities. Those who have been scheduled for vaccination this week should consider themselves lucky that their vaccine is “stateside” unless the Department of Health 7 can replenish the city’s supply of Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines this week.
Rama will be happy. The acting mayor has taken his designation as vaccine czar seriously, visiting the vaccination sites early in the morning every day. How long he will stay happy is everybody’s guess. Spoiler: Cebu City’s share of the 210,600 vaccine doses will not last long and Manila is still waiting for the next shipment.
I told you. Our vaccination program, which we pompously referred to as a rollout, will suffer so many pauses again before we can hit the desired target to attain herd immunity.