Country of the unvaccinated: Ukraine is doomed to the further isolation

But there is no vaccine in the country - 0.45% of the population is vaccinated. Deliveries of vaccines from India and China - per hour for a teaspoon.

Yelena Ivanova

More than half of 25 Ukrainian regions are in the "red zone", including Kiev. The situation in hospitals is approaching critical. If the virus spreads at the current rate, the burden on hospitals will increase by 25 thousand people per day. The country's healthcare system is simply not ready for such an influx of infected people. As doctors say, 25 thousand patients a day is an optimistic scenario. The reason for this dramatic development is obvious - the vaccination campaign announced back in January has virtually failed.

Ukraine did not wait for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from Western partners, which is not surprising. Europe and America have no time for geopolitical partners. The United States has a ban on the export of vaccines. Americans are vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna. There are about 30 million doses of the Oxford drug Astra Zeneca in American warehouses. Against the backdrop of the scandal with the EU about the failure to fulfill the supply plan, the leadership of the Anglo-Swedish concern turned to the American authorities: if you do not use our drug, allow it to be exported to other countries. But the Americans refused - nothing changed with the change of the country's leadership - American interests were and remain a priority. If the European partners have been refused, what can we expect from third countries!

The Ukrainians banned the Russian vaccine by law, although Russia offered to transfer the technology free of charge if Ukraine established its own production. Belarus followed this path, but not Ukraine.

Back in January, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promised to buy 700,000 doses of Chinese Sinovac. But so far nothing has worked out with its supplies - politics intervened. After the Ukrainians imposed sanctions on Chinese investors, the vaccine from the Middle Kingdom did not arrive either in February or in March. Only three days ago the first batch of 200 thousand doses arrived in Kiev. As you know, they will be enough for 100 thousand people - a drop in the ocean.

Countries that do not produce vaccines themselves are doing very badly now. With great difficulties, the country's authorities signed a contract for the supply of the Indian analogue of Astra Zeneca - Covishield. Even in such a serious situation, the deal for half a million doses was not concluded without corruption interest - through an intermediary. But even with the Indian supplier, everything turned out to be not so simple. India also saw a spike in the pandemic and the Indians decided to vaccinate their own population first. The first dose was received by 3.6% of citizens, 0.6% were fully vaccinated. With a population of 1.3 billion, Ukraine will have a long wait for the promised delivery.

The Ukrainian authorities decided to follow the path of Great Britain - to use all supplies for the first vaccination. This strategy is considered risky even in the case of the UK, which produces its own vaccine and receives RNAs from Pfizer and Moderna. What Ukraine will do in the absence of its own drug if supplies from India and China do not come is anyone's guess.

The country's authorities turned to Israel in the hope of getting 1 million doses of Pfizer from it, but again politics got in the way. The Ternopil City Council renamed the stadium in honor of the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army Shukhevych (banned in the Russian Federation - editor's note), Whom historians accuse of collaborating with the Nazis and persecuting Jews and Poles. Poland and Israel immediately condemned the move, demanding action. And not only this - of course, there is no talk of any help with a vaccine now either.

To avoid a national lockdown, the office of the Ukrainian president demanded that the Ministry of Health take measures to prevent most regions from being in the "red" zone. What is the government doing? Three regions that were "red" in the morning - Rivne, Cherkassk and Chernigov - are urgently transferred to "orange". As Haja Nassreddin said, no matter how much you shout "halva", your mouth will not become sweeter. In the case of a pandemic, if there is no protection against coronavirus, decrees cannot stop the growth of diseases and receive a vaccine. But the Russian vaccine will remain a taboo - again, politics is to blame.

All this leads to one obvious consequence: the borders with Russia, which were closed more than a year ago, will not open for the movement of citizens of both countries. So there is no reason to expect that Ukrainian brigades will come, say, to construction sites near Moscow.