Health

Coronavirus and the Biggest Challenge for Developing Countries by Israel Figa

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The developing countries should be in the news for good things, but in recent times, that has not been the case. The nations that are developing or under-developed are facing challenges due to the pandemic that the big nations can’t really fathom. It is to be kept in mind that the problems of the people in developing countries are completely different from the problems of the people in developed nations. You can’t expect a person in the US to be worrying about the same things that a person in Sri Lanka is worrying about.

As per Israel Figa, vaccination is not the biggest challenge for small countries and developing nations. For him, these countries are fighting a hard battle and they have a completely different war from the war that big countries are fighting. What exactly does Israel Figa mean by that? Continue reading to find out.

Vaccination Buying Is Difficult

Before they can even talk about vaccination, small countries and developing nations have to overcome the challenge of buying the vaccination in the first place. It is important to know here that such huge purchases are not easy for these countries. You might not think of vaccination as some expensive affair, but when the entire nations have to be vaccinated, you are talking about millions of dollars in just the vaccination procurement costs. The countries that are still developing are like working class people, who can spend money on their monthly expenses, but an unforeseen medical emergency can render them vulnerable to various financial crises.

Vaccination Distribution Is Difficult

Another huge concern for small countries and developing nations is that they don’t have the right infrastructure to make sure that everyone is vaccinated. For big countries with developed medical system, such as the US, they only have to worry about the procurement of the vaccination. Once they have it, they know how to distribute it and make it reach every person. On the other hand, the healthcare infrastructure is usually missing in developing countries, giving rise to an even bigger problem concerning the vaccination of all the people who need to be vaccinated.

The healthcare staff is not enough for the task and making the vaccine reach every corner of the country is an even bigger challenge. So, the countries that are still going through development and progress, they will struggle a lot even when they have purchased and imported the vaccine.

The Corruption while Vaccinating

As heart-rending as it may sound, the developing nations have this constant fear and challenge of corruption. There are people within the system who would manipulate everything and anything to their advantage. While the government might announce that the people will be vaccinated without any charges, that might not be the case on the ground. These people, such as the authorities of the private hospitals, might charge people for vaccination. Not to mention the fact that they might charge them just about any price they want due to the current emergency situation.

This corruption will lead to only a few people getting vaccinated. Not a lot of people will be going out of their ways to get vaccinated. The poor class will choose not to be vaccinated than spend all their monthly budget on getting it. This is a huge impact that the corrupt elements will cause in developing countries as per Israel Figa. At the end of the day, you can say that vaccination of everyone will take years in these countries because the distribution will be extremely slow.

Final Thoughts

It is unfortunate that the big countries are also affected by the coronavirus just as much as small countries. This means the small countries don’t have their big brothers in the position to help despite the fact that these developing nations are fighting many battles on many fronts. The silver lining to this story would be that some of these countries will learn from this instance and improve on all the things they are currently lacking in.