Vaccination: The most effective solution to stem Covid-19
By: Altaf kumail
Allah almighty has been kind on Pakistan as to the country has come out of the 2 initial waves of deadly COVID-19 pandemic without any great damage. Though around 14,000 lives fell prey to this rare virus in last one year, besides hitting hard its already fragile economy.
The PTI-led Federation and provincial governments came up with Covid related standard operating procedures (SOPs) with initial country wide lockdowns, and rail, road and air suspensions to stem the coronavirus – which has already brought the world particularly the major economies like US, EU, and China at a grinding halt.
The health experts and medical research institutions remained incapable to invent an effective anti-covid medicine for almost a year since the virus struck China and eventually spread all over the world including Pakistan, wracking havoc to the socio economic lives of the people across the globe.
Fortunately, the health experts from USA and China have finally invented vaccines and the same are being injected to the people.
China has donated vaccines to around 30 countries including Pakistan.
The number of tests for the diagnosis of coronavirus is still limited and the data collected on coronavirus patients is also being questioned, but it was still clear that the situation in Pakistan far better than in many countries.
Unfortunately, neither the people are strictly following the precautionary measures nor the government was showing any high performance in this regard. Inevitably, it was God’s mercy that made Pakistan less affected than other countries.
Therefore, in the case of the third wave, the coronavirus that is wreaking havoc in Pakistan today is the British strain virus. This type of virus spreads faster and new research has shown that the death rate from it is also slightly higher.
Now, if we are to overcome this third wave, it is important to take precautionary measures against Corona in any case to prevent the spread of the virus. Corona SOPs also need to be tougher than before because this new virus has the ability to spread more easily and at lightning speed.
There are three main reasons why SOPs are not implemented properly. The first is that the virus is complicated one whose effects and symptoms cannot be easily seen, so people are not taking it seriously. Also, a confusion was spread by the government and especially the political leaders. Both the government and the opposition continued to hold meetings during the Coronavirus surge. The government allowed upto 300 people to attend the wedding ceremonies, where 300 peopleunder such case, how will people take Corona seriously? how will the public comply with Corona’s SOPs?
No matter how strict SOPs are made and implemented to prevent coronavirus, it is not a permanent solution.
Blaming the public for not implementing the SOPs distracts from the real issue. SOPs are strictly enforced and lockdowns can only be imposed temporarily to keep the pandemic under control, but the pandemic can never be eradicated by these measures. The only solution to eradicate this epidemic is a vaccine that neither the government nor the philanthropic people are fully able to provide.
At the moment, the whole country should have one mission and that is to get vaccinated and get as many people as possible. We have not only delayed the availability of the vaccine but also delayed informing the public about it. Besides, statements by some government officials that the corona vaccine should be administered at one’s own risk further hindered the vaccination process.
One thing that is being done everywhere is that we live in a poor country, where will we pay for the vaccine? We are citizens of a poor country, of course, but the financial loss we are suffering from this plague and, God willing, could be more, is nothing more than the cost of the vaccine, and the loss of life and the fear of more, there is no solution.
We, the people, do not value our own lives. We immediately install screen protectors on a 10,000 rupee mobile phones so that the screen does not get damaged, but we do not like to wear helmets while riding a motorcycle.
We need to know that this epidemic is affecting our economy as much as it is affecting us. So we have to go for the only solution to this pandemic, the vaccine. The sooner we invest in it, the sooner we will protect our lives.
