Up to now, 205 million people all around the world have been vaccinated against coronavirus. In absolute numbers, the United States of America (USA) leads with 61 million vaccinated, and in the real parameters, when it comes to the percentages, Israel, which has so far vaccinated as many as 82.5 percent of its citizens, is the champion.
Our neighbor Serbia is performing very well, considering that, according to ourworldindata.org, has already vaccinated 14.5 percent of the population, or almost a million citizens.
New 150.000 doses arrived in Serbia yesterday, this time from AstraZeneca manufacturer. They were accepted at the airport by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, who said that his country is one of the few where citizens can already choose vaccines from four manufacturers: Pfizer, Sputnik V, Sinopharm, and AstraZeneca.
The fact that Serbia signed a new contract with Pfizer on Friday is quite impressive, which means that in the second quarter, instead of 500.000 vaccines, our eastern neighbors will get 1.2 million doses, and in the third quarter, instead of 400.000, they will have 1.19 million doses. The record supplier so far has been Chinese Sinopharm with a million and a half doses.
In the meantime, vaccination in our country takes place in quantities that are below the statistical error, the mentioned page has not yet registered around hundred of vaccinated medical workers in the Republika Srpska (RS), and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) represents a real dark hole on the map of Europe.
No one has a real explanation for this case, and we have already entered the third part of February and passed all the announcements of the federal authorities that the vaccines will come between January 18th and February 10th.
The theory that the government is passive because it is afraid of any procurement after the “Respirators” affair is not convincing because it is not the case that we have only one government and a clear structure and hierarchy, such as in Serbia. BiH has so many levels, governments, and ministers, more than any other country, those who had a chance to prove themselves, move from words to acts and save at least some lives.
Still, it looks like we are sacrificing human lives and economic failure for this arrangement and perpetual blockades we encounter at every level, the chronic absence of responsibility, and the attitude that someone else will do something good for us, for example in the case of vaccines, it is expected from Nelson or Sattler.
The announcements made by the government about new measures, threats of closure, and worsening of the already difficult business operations of economic entities, as well as the lives of citizens, are particularly devastating. As if all that is not part of the same issue and as if they do not realize that they should “kill two birds with one stone”.
The new government of Canton Sarajevo (CS) announced at the beginning of its mandate, that it would solve the problem by spring and that citizens would be able to return to normal life. Later on, funds were already provided for the purchase of a certain amount of doses, but there was a turnaround – vaccines became inaccessible, and a new set of more rigorous measures was announced. The excuse that CS is too small to buy vaccines on its own because the minimum quantities are more than a million doses was denied with the practices of countries that have inhabitants like only two cantons in BiH or Vucic himself, who received 150 thousand doses yesterday.
The people from the government do not seem to be aware that they are the only responsible because they are the only ones that have been given a