Azerbaijan cannot receive vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna

Baku/29.03.21/Turan: According to official data, to date, 526 401 people in Azerbaijan have been vaccinated against COVID-19. In this case, vaccination is carried out only with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. Despite the signing contracts with other manufacturers, their products have not yet arrived in Azerbaijan.

At a press conference on February 26 President Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan should receive vaccines AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna within the COVAX project, but this is not happening. In this regard, the official media in Azerbaijan regard the delay in vaccines as a "biased" attitude towards the country.

As a member of the Health Committee of the Milli Mejlis, Malahat Ibrahimgizi told Turan, the first batch of vaccines under COVAX was supposed to arrive in January-March of this year. However, there are no vaccines. “This means that obligations to Azerbaijan are not being fulfilled,” she said. A few days ago, it became known that COVAX would provide Azerbaijan with fewer vaccines than promised.

"Even the timing of the deliveries is still unknown. This is unacceptable. COVAX has already delivered the first shipment of vaccines to Georgia. Azerbaijan has mobilized global efforts to fight the pandemic, provided assistance to 30 countries and donated $ 10 million to the World Health Organization to fight the coronavirus. However, double standards and a frivolous approach to Azerbaijan is still taking place,” Ibrahimgizi said.

 “A number of developed countries receive vaccines several times more than their population, while many poor countries have not yet received the vaccine,” the deputy continued.

She noted that Azerbaijan has already signed a contract with a Chinese company that insures risks in this area. An agreement was also signed on the purchase of vaccines in Russia. About half a million of our citizens have already been vaccinated and the process continues successfully, the deputy said.

Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Sciences, Vasif Ismail said that vaccine manufacturers are struggling to produce the required amount of drugs. Making a vaccine for 7 billion people is not easy. Considering that the vaccine is two-dose, the work is doubly difficult, the expert noted.

However, each of the great powers represented on the COVAX platform began to use their power to break the rules in their favor. Vaccine factories are located there and they force companies to serve the citizens of their countries in the first place.

According to political scientist Azer Gasimli, the distribution of vaccines is a process that does not depend on WHO. The fact that Azerbaijan still does not receive vaccines through the COVAX platform is by no means an indicator of bias towards Azerbaijan. “It is true that a consignment of vaccines has been sent to Georgia, but vaccination has just begun there. More than 500 thousand people have already been vaccinated in Azerbaijan. This is 6% of the country's population. Taking into account that children do not need serious vaccinations, it means that more than 10% of the population over 18 years old are already vaccinated. This is a good result even in comparison with Europe,” Gasimli said. -021D-