Chairman of Prime Minister’s Taskforce on Science and Technology Dr Atta ur Rehman on Tuesday remarked that the Pfizer vaccine, being celebrated worldwide, is not suitable for Pakistan.
“This vaccine is not suitable for Pakistan in my opinion,” the former head of the HEC warned that it was “too early to celebrate” the news regarding the Pfizer vaccine.
“We should not think much about this vaccine, instead focus on other vaccines that are being developed and have seen similar results but haven’t been announced with fanfare. They are working quietly,” said Dr Rehman.
Explaining his reasoning, the scientist said he was cautious because he believes that the vaccine has “five problems” to deal with right now.
“The first problem is that the FDA has not given the approval, the regulatory bodies have to approve and will take two months,” said Dr Rehman. He added that the regulatory bodies will have to see the results first then allow the company to move on to the next stage of the vaccine finalisation process.
The other problem that the scientist highlighted was that the vaccine needs to be kept at a temperature of -80 °C, which in his view was a major problem for third world countries, including Pakistan.
The former HEC chairman said that the third world countries, including Pakistan, do not have the “cold chain” that will allow them to transport the vaccine in -80°C temperatures from the point of origin to the hospitals.
He added that giving two doses of the vaccine also make it difficult to rely on the vaccine.
“The third biggest problem is that you do not know how many days it is effective,” said Dr Rehman. He explained that right now there was no “evidence, or any result” that has been seen by Pfizer and BioNTech to determine its effectiveness.
“In the beginning it is effective but [you don’t know] for how many months the anti-bodies remain in your body,” said Dr Rehman.
The other two problems shared by Dr Rehman was large-scale production which he feels would take a year to reach subject to the vaccine passing all the steps required. The last problem he shared was the price of the vaccine.
