Why many Asian countries are being cautious about vaccines

Photographer: Chan Long Hei / Bloomberg

The nations quickest to establish social distance and contact tracking systems have kept Covid-19 under control, but its citizens are now taking too long to get the vaccines needed to finally end a pandemic that has devastated millions of lives.

Governments from Japan and Australia to Hong Kong and South Korea are taking time before granting regulatory approvals for vaccines, in stark contrast to Western nations that have been quick to inoculate populations.

This cautious approach may seem strange, given the urgency to resume normal life, but low infection rates mean that Asian governments can wait to see how unprecedented vaccination initiatives unfold elsewhere. Still, the strategy runs the risk of leaving them at an economic disadvantage compared to places that failed in containment, but ended up with vaccination.

In New Zealand, which ranks first at Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking of the main economies that best fought the pandemic, the main opposition party asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to explain why the country “lagged behind the rest of the world with its vaccine program”. In South Korea, an editorial in the Hankyoreh newspaper said “we cannot ask people forever to stop their daily lives and endure economic pain”.

But the authorities are defending their pace as the safest and most deserved approach. “It is not a bad thing to sit down and see how others are doing,” said Lam Ching-choi, a doctor and member of the Executive Council who advises the Hong Kong leader. “I am totally supportive when they don’t have the luxury and need to do it in the quickest way to kill the epidemic.”

Front runners

Top 10 countries with the fastest launch of the Covid vaccine

Source: Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker as of 6 pm EST on January 13

Hong Kong, currently reporting a few dozen cases of Covid-19 a day and with a total of 161 deaths since the start of the pandemic, has not yet approved a single vaccine as it awaits more detailed clinical trial data before a planned vaccination campaign to start in February.

Australia, which closed its border to non-residents when the pandemic started and instituted strict blockades when cases arise, hopes to approve the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE by the end of January and the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine next month, with photos also starting in February.

In contrast, the USA and the UK have already administered nearly 14 million injections in total after accelerated approvals last month, while Israel administered 2 million doses, or 22 injections for 100 people.

Vaccine anxiety

Asian officials and health experts remain anxious because it is the first use of this Vaccine mRNA technology, which instructs the human body to produce proteins that develop protective antibodies. It is also the first global vaccination effort carried out at such a high speed.

Although millions have received jabs without incident, there have been some allergic reactions, including anaphylactic shock and incidents like death of a health worker 16 days after receiving the injection from Pfizer, although a connection has not been established.

“This extra time will allow these countries to learn from the experience of the countries that started distribution,” said Adam Taylor, a virologist at Griffith University in Australia. “The more information you have about the distribution process and the safety of vaccines, the more confidence you have in your own implementation. The technology used for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has never been used in humans before, and while safety looks good, the more data the better. “

Some countries are concerned that pharmaceutical companies have obtained legal immunity in hurried negotiations. South Korea’s Health Minister Park Neunghoo said the countries were forced to “unfair contracts” with these companies due to the “incomprehensible” nature of the pandemic. Seoul plans to administer injections in February.

More than 32.4 million shots fired: Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker

“It is almost universal worldwide that companies are being required to have a wide immunity from liability,” Park said at a recent news conference, noting that Korean officials need time to examine security data closely, as companies will not take responsibility for any accidents. “Running to vaccinate populations before identifying risks is not so necessary for us.”

Herd immunity

These explanations may not appeal to citizens in Asian economies who were hit by the virus before the West and therefore spent almost an entire year wearing masks, staying at home and obeying strict rules of social distance.

“Everyone is trying to survive and I think they should get the vaccines as soon as possible for people who are comfortable taking them,” said Aron Harilela, president of Harilela Hotels Ltd. and former president of the General Chamber Hong Kong Trade Commission. “You can continue to worry about making the wrong decision, but the whole world is getting vaccines, because all savings will fall to their knees if we don’t open.”

In New Zealand – which closed its border early and extinguished the virus – the opposition criticizes the country’s slow vaccination schedule, citing a global resurgence of the virus and the emergence of more communicable variants. The New Zealand launch is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2021.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson denied that the country is just being “educated ”, and said that other countries with increased death toll have priority. “We are doing everything possible to get the vaccines here as quickly as possible,” Robertson told NewstalkZB this week.

Unsuccessful launch

Another reason to act more slowly than desperate Western nations is that they do not want a flawed implementation to undermine public confidence in vaccines, potentially jeopardizing the ability to inoculate a sufficient percentage of the population for herd immunity.