It is medical consensus that COVID-19 vaccines are the only reliable and effective means to prevent disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Vaccines help build immune system in human body, which shields the people from the virus attack effectively. When a larger segment of population is vaccinated against the virus, the given country or society achieves the herd immunity, which is the key to fighting and eventually eradicating the scourge. The vaccinated people are less likely to become ill even if they catch the virus. The wider immunity serves as a bulwark against the virus because the immune people break the potential chain in its transmission. The COVID-19 virus has morphed into different infectious variants, with their ability to escape the vaccine-built immunity in the people. However, immunologists have said that no matter how dreadful the variants, they can’t dodge the body’s post-vaccination immune responses.

COVID-19 has triggered a global health crisis, with devastating social and economic repercussions. It has killed millions of people, and those infected who survived the virus are also bound to suffer the effects of long COVID. This is a horrible episode in human history. But the scientific feat enabled the humanity to develop vaccines within a short span of time. Different types of vaccines have been invented and applied to combat the pandemic. The growing number of people is gradually benefiting the mass vaccination drives underway in many nations. The WHO says safe and effective vaccines are a game-changer but its call for fair and equitable access to vaccines has been lost in the wilderness. Some rich nations are stocking vaccines more than they need while the poor nations are left out in the cold.

Like many nations, Nepal is desperately waiting for the life-saving jabs to protect its population from the pandemic. Of late, it is gradually coming out of the second wave of pandemic though its threat has not been completely subsided. Nepal was among the first nations in South Asia to launch the vaccination drive. It largely relied on the vaccines received in donation. The vaccination campaign hit a snag after it failed to receive the required number of vaccines. It even did not receive the shots for which it had already paid money to the vaccine manufacturing company in India. To date, about 8.3 per cent of the population has been vaccinated. Of them, 2.4 per cent (731,563) have received both the doses, according to the news report of this daily.

Around 1.4 million elderly citizens, who got the first dose of vaccine, are eagerly waiting for the second dose. They were expected to have it at the interval of 8-12 weeks, which was due last month from May 16 to May 29. The government has promised to vaccinate all the eligible people free of cost but in the absence of vaccines, the plan is not going ahead smoothly. It has mobilised all mechanisms, particularly the diplomatic missions abroad to bring in vaccines but the efforts are taking time. The President wrote to her counterparts in India, China, the US and Russia, urging them to provide the vaccines to Nepal. China has so far responded to her request and donated one million vaccines immediately. It has become urgent for the government to redouble its efforts and demonstrate diplomatic astuteness to convince the international community for providing jabs to Nepal at the earliest.