PODCAST
EXCLUSIVE
Ukraine’s slow vaccine rollout
Elina Kent: Welcome to the Kyiv Post Podcast, where you can tune in to stories that give you a deeper understanding of Ukraine.
I’m your host Elina Kent. I’m a multimedia producer and lifestyle journalist here at the Kyiv Post. Last week’s episode was all about the third wave of coronavirus that has hit Ukraine. This week Kyiv Post editor-in-chief Brian Bonner and I sit down and talk about vaccines and what we can expect in the next few months.
Even though Ukraine started vaccinating its population against COVID-19 over a month ago, we’ve seen only 2 Ukrainians have been vaccinated with the required 2 doses of the vaccine. So there’s very much been a slow roll out we could say in Ukraine.
Brian Bonner: Well it’s very frightening on a number of levels. You are right, you can put various estimates on how many years this vaccination campaign will last if they do not pick up the pace.
Bloomberg today estimated that Ukraine may take 10 years to vaccinate 75% of the population in order to achieve herd immunity.
That sounds frightening, and things have to change.
Two problems: one is supply, adequate supply; and the other big problem is so many Ukrainians are anti-vaccine and public education has to change their mind.
Not only are lives at stake, but the ability to travel and move freely is at stake. If other nations start imposing requirements, entry requirements that require people from Ukraine to have proof of vaccination, we are going to be out of luck. We are both Americans in Ukraine, I’m not going to wait forever to get vaccinated in Ukraine. I got covid, you got covid we both got covid and thankfully recovered. My doctor says I should be good for at least 90 days with antibodies. I recovered March 1. That puts me into at least summer. I’m going to go back, and by then Joe Biden and the U.S. administration have said anybody who wants to get vaccinated should be able to do so.
EK: I got tested three weeks ago to see if I still had antibodies and I still did but I really do want to get vaccinated as soon as possible and like you said because we are foreigners we are not really going to have the option until it’s readily commercially available, but seeing how slow it is in Ukraine is not —
BB: No it’s not encouraging. We are going to be in this for a long time. And you are right we can’t even buy the vaccine, it’s not commercially available. There’s a Kharkiv-based pharmaceutical company that talks about selling a vaccine commercially, but that’s all we‘ve seen talk about it.
We are talking on a day where we have new records, which seem to be broken every day or almost daily.
Almost 20,000 new cases on April 1st and 433 new deaths.
We have Health Minister Maksym Stepanov saying the next two weeks are going to be the worst, and hence the government is locking us back down. It is deja vu. I mean if you would have told me a year ago when we were in deep lockdown that a year from now we would still be in deep lockdown, would you have believed it? It’s just astounding. With public transport and businesses being shut down, basically, authorities are telling employers to let everybody stay home. The longer it goes on the more economic consequences it has for Ukraine. So nothing is good right now, there is still, I think hope and I don’t think people want to be too depressed listening to us.
The US and other countries are ramping up vaccine production and there is supposed to be an oversupply by this summer. Now if Ukraine and other countries play their cards right and if the West acts now that they have been taken care of their citizens, a lot of vaccine nationalism now.
But the true story is we are not going to get out of this pandemic until everybody globally is protected from this coronavirus. So I expect by the end of the year we are going to see a huge shift in supply and I think there are going to be a lot more vaccines available in countries like Ukraine, among the poorer ones in Europe, who are not able to buy the quantities the US or Israel or other countries can.
EK: And at this point, there is a reason why there is a deep lockdown, the mentality – people caring is at a completely different level than it was a year ago. A year ago there were 14 cases. There wasn’t a single person outside they were fully complying with the lockdown. And now this time our first weekend of lockdown was the first sunny days of spring. Even though the Ukrainian government has implemented a fine if you are not wearing a mask outside you will be fined, I don’t think I saw a single person wearing a mask when I was walking through the park. I think this should pressure the government, even more, to understand that the vaccine rollout should be much faster while we have people going outside while – I’m convinced that we do have new variants that are the reason why it’s been spiking up so much, so I am hoping though, with these numbers, vaccines will be coming more and more. That this mentality will shift and people will be more willing to vaccinate.
BB: The scientists say that the summer is the best, and you remember last summer we didn’t have vaccines and yet the rates were going down. Fresh air, being outside, gives you more opportunities to distance. And what we are being caught in is the tail end of winter, where we are all stuck inside, with the same air, we are seeing a lot of new infections. I hope it doesn’t get to be the worst estimates that they had. But we are getting close. They predicted 500 deaths a day in April and we are at 433 deaths today and 400 yesterday. So we are getting uncomfortably close. Hospitals that are extremely under stress and full. So at some point, the government has got to make a breakthrough in supply and in changing public attitudes.
EK: As of now, only the AstraZeneca vaccine is available in Ukraine. The country received some 215,000 doses of the Chinese-made vaccine CoronaVac. But the government didn’t start using that vaccine yet. As it needs to be approved by Ukraine and the World Health Organization. And Ukraine will get more vaccines from COVAX, another 8 million free doses. And Pfizer from the US and Germany eventually, but still not here yet. Foreigners in Ukraine, we’re only able to get vaccines here once they are commercial, we aren’t sure when they will be commercial so the best bet is either staying put and waiting out or –
BB: Where is the famous black market! You know we are in a country where they don’t always do things legally and by the book, you would have thought there would be a market that developed but I don’t think anyone would trust that. So I mean I think that the supply lines are still not extending themselves to Ukraine. On a hopeful note, mortality is quite low now, or getting lower. Treatment is better. I think it all hinges on this vaccination supply. I think that will change. Those 10-year projections are based on this current pace, it’s not going to be this current pace, people are clamoring I think and especially those skeptical of the vaccines if they can’t get out of the country and can’t travel well that means a lot to people and means a lot to Ukrainians and they may be forced to take the vaccine if they want to continue to their foreign vacations which we all hope to do.
EK: That is one thing to look forward to is the warm weather and have the opportunity to go outdoors and distantly safely spend time with people who have more likely than not already gotten sick with COVID and have antibodies.
BB: It’s a pretty big club now.
EK: Thank you for coming on the podcast and talking about the vaccine rollouts. I hope you get vaccinated soon, and I get vaccinated soon and the majority of our staff gets vaccinated soon so we can go back to where we were a year ago.
BB: And stop living in fear at least. So I agree. Thank you for having me.
EK: That was this week’s episode of the Kyiv Post podcast. I’m your host Elina Kent. You can subscribe to our podcasts on all streaming platforms and follow along with the Kyiv Post website. For those in Ukraine, enjoy the warmer weather at a safe distance from others, and as always stay safe, stay home, and subscribe to the Kyiv Post.
