Making Vaccines Available to Other Countries Before Offering Domestic Booster Vaccinations jamanetwork.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from jamanetwork.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
July 19, 2021
A vial of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being used at Gleneagles hospital in Singapore.
Reuters
Health authorities paused vaccine roll-outs and told younger people to avoid certain jabs over extremely rare side effects. Experts warned of soaring Covid-19 cases in even highly vaccinated countries such as Britain and Israel. Studies sounded the alarm about the jabs being less effective against virus variants, and vaccine makers raised the need for boosters to ensure people remained protected.
A year ago, many experts thought the arrival of a Covid-19 vaccine could take years – if it happened at all. As recently as August, World Health Organization (WHO) director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned the pandemic “silver bullet” of a vaccine might never come.
Confession: I have been suffering a mild case of vaccine envy in recent weeks.
Among my family members, a few work in the healthcare and essential service sectors. They were called up quite quickly to get their Covid-19 vaccine jabs. About half my family members have now been vaccinated. I remain among the unjabbed half.
Early last month, I asked my company s human resources department if there were plans to vaccinate staff, especially journalists who are out covering events and interviewing people. As a columnist whose bread and butter is information and insights, I often meet people face to face. The rapport and information flow are just not the same over WhatsApp chats, a virtual meeting, or by e-mail. The HR folks said they had asked the Government and were awaiting a reply.