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Why Are Asian Countries Uninterested in Vaccinations?

Here's a mystery:

The UK and the United States are both doing well in the vaccination race. Europe started out slow but is beginning to catch up. Countries in Asia are . . .

Nowhere. The four I've highlighted are all rich countries, so it's not a matter of money. All of them currently have very low infection rates, but surely that doesn't make them think they're invulnerable? What's going on here?

23 thoughts on “Why Are Asian Countries Uninterested in Vaccinations?

  1. kenalovell

    I can only speak for Australia, where the federal government's administration of the vaccination program has been appalling. They split the population into various confusingly numbered groups - there was no priority 1, for example, but 1a and 1b - did a shithouse job of telling people where they could get a vaccine, and then changed the whole thing after four people got blood clots so people under 50 don't get the AstraZeneca vaccine. The website where you're supposed to be able to make a booking doesn't work; it just directs you to your local clinics, who don't even advise whether they have stock.

    The extremely low infection rate means there's no sense of urgency, because for most people life is pretty much normal again. I expect some time later this year, the state governments (who've run rings around the feds in terms of competence) will decide to ramp up the program with some more vigorous promotion and possibly coercion. My state has finally opened a vaccination centre in my regional town, giving shots on a walk-in-off-the-street basis, and that's how I'll get mine next time I'm nearby.

    1. Austin

      “They split the population into various confusingly numbered groups - there was no priority 1, for example, but 1a and 1b - did a shithouse job of telling people where they could get a vaccine... The website where you're supposed to be able to make a booking doesn't work...”

      All 3 of these problems occurred in most of the US too. For example, in Washington DC, Group 1 had something like 8 different subgroups. In the first 2-3 months, nobody knew where they could get their vaccine, and their website crashed several times and - until they completely revamped their appointment system - DC required everyone to wake up early each morning to apply for appointments that were fully booked within minutes of being posted. Many other states shared these same issues. So none of this incompetence explains why Australia is so far behind the US.

      1. Mitch Guthman

        I think others here have it right: there was a real sense of urgency in the UK because things were obviously spiraling out of control. Similarly, many American states felt that the vaccines were (and obviously are) their last best hope for survival. So they dug deep and, in most places where the federal government wasn’t involved) did reasonably well.

        By contrast, countries that had imposed strict measures against COVID-19 from early on had already begun returning to normal when the vaccines started to become available. So I think it’s correct to say that the sense of urgency and the desire for a return to normal life that drove states like California to get vaccination programs going was absent in countries like Australia. Ultimately, it may be the cases that they will regret have squandered an opportunity but I do feel this is the most likely explanation for their lackluster efforts on vaccines.

    1. veerkg_23

      All of them have supply issues. Thanks to the lack of patent waivers there simply aren't enough vaccine doses being produced. Vaccine supply was targetted at the most infected countries first - so USA/UK then a bunch of Europe and Brazil/India. The countries which handled it well are at the back of the pack.

      1. ey81

        It has nothing to do with patents, and everything to do with manufacturing capacity. These are complicated, difficult products.

  2. duncancairncross

    Here (NZ) we don't feel a need to vaccinate urgently - so there is no need to take vaccines that could be used to save lives in other countries

    We will not be able to open the borders until almost everybody is vaccinated anyway so there is no great hurry to get our population done
    The people most at risk have now been vaccinated - they are working on the old farts (like me) and I expect everybody to be done by spring

  3. golack

    The vaccine was Trump's Hail Mary pass. Do nothing then pray the vaccines save the day. This coronavirus is now endemic in the US--so vaccinations are the only way out right now.

  4. kendoran@execpc.com

    I suspect a variety of factors as other have suggested, but I would offer 1.) sheer hubris and/or 2) for perhaps at least some decision makers, a calculation that if the pandemic does threaten at some point, a prompt and thorough vaccination program will be feasible.

  5. ssittig1

    It's interesting that the country (Japan) that wants to host the Olympics this summer has been so lax on the vaccine front.

  6. D_Ohrk_E1

    It would be wrong to put all Asian countries in a basket.

    Wealth/Size -- Some countries don't have the capacity to buy large volumes of vaccines directly from manufacturers, instead relying on COVAX which has an extremely limited amount of doses relative to the number of countries requesting doses.

    Self-Interest -- Most of the wealthier/larger countries have their self-interests in mind, focusing on domestic development, production, and approval of their own COVID-19 vaccines.

    Existing Low Risk -- Most Asian countries have been able to either control, or by proxy of others limiting travel, have had their infections controlled, to the point that simple social distancing and mask use measures have put vaccinations on a lower priority.

    General Vaccine Hesitancy -- Some Asian countries have higher levels of vaccine hesitancy than even the US. Japan comes to mind, here. Their regulatory bodies have been much slower at approving foreign vaccines as a result.

    Hubris -- India's Modi delivering speeches of having conquered COVID-19, weeks before a massive surge.

    1. Austin

      “It would be wrong to put all Asian countries in a basket.

      Wealth/Size -- Some countries don't have the capacity to buy large volumes of vaccines directly from manufacturers...”

      Kevin isn’t putting all Asian countries in the same basket. He specifically mentions only Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, all of which are decidedly not poor.

  7. ruralhobo

    If it's not urgent, let other people be the guinea pigs. At least that would be my thought if I lived there.

    1. Joel

      The problem with that is that the unvaccinated population is a reservoir for virus replication, and replication is the source of variation upon which selection operates. In this case, selection for variants that are more easily transmitted and that are resistant to the current vaccines.

      Until herd immunity is reached *everywhere*, we are all endangered by the unvaccinated.

      1. veerkg_23

        Currently all 4 of the those countries have fewer active cases/day than the US alone. So the vaccination is focused on where the infections are most rampant and the chance of variants most likely.

      2. ruralhobo

        Countries with low COVID levels are NOT ones where mutations are most likely to occur. So no, they don't feel they are putting others at risk. What's more, and this is insufficiently noted, vaccine-resistant variants are more likely to arise where COVID levels are high, but when it comes to transmission, being vaccinated does not help at all. Vaccine-resistant mutants will spread through ANY population, vaccinated or not.

  8. lawnorder

    As long as vaccines are going into arms as quickly as they are produced, it doesn't greatly matter which arms. Overall, there is some benefit to concentrating on high risk individuals and high risk areas first. The world as a whole is better off if vaccines go first to India, where the case rate is high, rather than Japan, where the case rate is low, but the long term goal has to be to vaccinate the world.

    It is only when vaccine supply is ample world wide and people just aren't getting vaccinated that vaccine hesitancy becomes a concern.

  9. jheaney001

    Italy held back some doses Australia ordered. Australia had a goal of four million doses but administered less than a million due to supply and poor planning. They are making their own now. Article about failings was titled “missed it by that much”

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