Leave it to the Ukrainian government to make a giant mess even messier when hundreds of thousands of lives are on the line.
We get it. With the world crying out for COVID‑19 vaccines, there was always going to be a mad international scramble as each country tries to secure as many doses as it can.
But Ukraine’s plans to secure the vaccine have been confused, contradictory and, at times, suspicious. The Trump administration’s last minute populism only made it worse.
And this is only going to aggravate Ukrainians’ mistrust of the vaccine, already stoked by the government’s bad prior track record. More than half the country is unwilling to vaccinate, even if it was free. That means Ukraine can look forward to no herd immunity and a soaring death toll.
At first, Ukraine was in negotiations with Pfizer, whose RNA vaccine is the most effective one in the world and the only one approved by the World Health Organization. It’s also been speaking with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, among others.
But the country lacks the regional infrastructure to keep it cold enough and Donald Trump banned its export in December, driving Ukraine into China’s arms, according to the New York Times. The Chinese vaccine’s clinical trial results varied widely but in Brazil, it only reached 50,4% effectiveness, a far cry from the other vaccines hitting the market.
The Chinese deal raises questions. Lekhim, a middleman, has been chosen as the exclusive distributor of vaccine from Chinese biotech firm Sinovac. Health Minister Maksym Stepanov claimed that Sinovac requested it and wouldn’t have it any other way.
But when journalists called Sinovac, the company said it only does business with countries directly and that it’s Ukraine’s government that told it to work through Lekhim.
The price tag also raised eyebrows. According to Nashi Groshi, Ukraine paid $18 per dose to Sinovac Biotech for a vaccine that’s supposedly 50.4% effective while Moldova paid the same amount to Pfizer for a vaccine that’s 95% effective.
Meanwhile, a vaccine was reportedly available for $3 per dose from the Serum Institute of India, which has been negotiating with state company Medical Procurement of Ukraine. But Stepanov, who spent his entire tenure doing his best to destroy Medical Procurement, blamed the company for his own delays and forbade it from buying vaccines. Ukraine is reportedly negotiating with Serum Institute but the status of these negotiations is unknown.
While Ukraine can expect some free vaccines from the COVAX program, they will not be enough to reach 65–70% of the population that WHO says is needed for herd immunity.
And the government’s disorganized flailing, confused messages to the public and obstinate folding of its arms whenever someone asks a question only adds credibility to the anti-vaxxers, who have the ear of more than half of Ukraine.
