On the new surge, or rather the perceived new wave of Covid-19 cases, we have stated before that due to a lack of testing, there are actually many asymptomatic cases out there. It is only a matter of time (unless we can find a vaccine) for these cases to surface.
Social distancing measures may not be sustainable on a long-term basis due to our mostly “brick & mortar” economy which is highly dependent on foreign workers as well as our porous borders.
The most risky stand that the government seems to be involved in now is its skewed strategic positioning on procuring a vaccine from overseas by adopting a policy of using ONLY a government to government (G-to-G) approach or a government to vaccine (G-to-V) developers approach, which may have many constraints and strings attached.
For instance, our country may have issues with China over the disputed South China Sea and also with India over certain matters; where both countries are major vaccine manufacturers.
Initiatives involving the private sectors both here and overseas will not have such constraints.
The public seems to have been given the wrong impression that all is well and we should be able to get a vaccine soon via G-to-G or G-to-V initiatives and through well-intentioned schemes such as the Covax initiative coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO is a sincere and well-meaning organisation but it does not have the political and financial clout to do the right thing. It can only complain loudly about the injustices and stupidity of our global health system and the power politics involved – which is better than doing nothing.
There have been some “shiok sendiri” stories by pseudo analysts here to distract, divert and cover up our inability to secure a promising vaccine candidate due to geo and nationalist politics.
There are no vaccines in the world and in history that has been so politicised and sought after as a Covid vaccine, partly thanks to President Donald Trump.
It is no longer about helping the poor and needy or even saving lives, but about big powers like the US attempting to control and stockpile a workable Covid vaccine as a “geopolitical weapon” to deny and influence other countries, even if it has to cost millions of lives and destroy many economies.
We have not been told properly about the real world, about the anticipated severe global shortage of a Covid vaccine even if one is found tomorrow due to the very limited global manufacturing capacity for a worldwide population of 7.8 billion people.
The two largest vaccine manufacturing countries, India and China, are estimated to produce about 700 million doses per year.
Malaysia does not even have manufacturing facilities for human vaccines, only some “fill and finish” packaging facilities and such facilities are meaningless if we can’t get hold of a workable vaccine.
Our country is also caught in between, as a middle-income country, so we can’t even expect any special help like the poor countries would get. We are on our own. We can choose to pretend all is well or go around begging for a workable vaccine, or we can do the very smart thing to overcome this obstacle.
Despite the anticipated shortage for the vaccine, the wealthy and powerful nations led by the US government have already pre-booked billions of doses with practically nothing left for the rest of the world for the first few years.
So, our country is in a very vulnerable position, more so than we care to admit.
While the government should certainly explore G-to-G initiatives to procure a vaccine, it has so far, refused to support or endorse any genuine and competent private sector initiatives to secure a vaccine from vaccine developers overseas, most of which are private sector biotech firms, which are NOT constrained by government politics in their commercial dealings with interested buyers.
What has the country and government got to lose by having more options on the table and more chances of success in securing a Covid vaccine?
The lives and health of our people are at stake, so is our economic survival.
KK Tan is director of the Covid Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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