EYE-brows were raised when Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin lambasted rich countries for vaccine hoarding, describing the act as “cruel and unjust” against poor and less developed countries.

The Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister drew similarity to the act with a scene from the Titanic where the ship was sinking and the rich people in the first class had the priority boarding the lifeboats.

”Poor countries, less developed countries, are left to drown. That is what is happening today,” Khairy said at the launch of Malaysia Aviation Group’s (MAG) sustainability blueprint here on Wednesday (June 23).

But in a highly charged political atmosphere, Khairy found himself under fire, with his detractors saying he was merely shifting attention from the criticism against him for the slow rollout of the vaccination exercise.

The National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) was also rapped for its giving conditional approval for the CanSino vaccine and not approving Sinopharm and Sputnik vaccines. In reality, Singapore has also not approved these vaccines.

Singapore is only providing Pfizer and Moderna while the private sector is allowed to give Sinovac, which comes from government stock purchases some time ago.

The European Union Ambassador to Malaysia Michalis Rokas was quick to refute Khairy’s statement, saying the EU (European Union) had shipped 4.087 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses and approved the export of another five million doses for Malaysia.

”By June 21, five million doses have been approved for exportation and 4,087,000 doses have been effectively transported already by June 15.

”These numbers concern doses manufactured by Pfizer, and to these exports, I should also add that the EU has already manufactured and already shipped 560,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the Covax scheme,” Rokas said.

But Rokas wasn’t addressing the statement made by Khairy, who was talking about poor and less developed countries as a whole.

Is it merely the politicians capitalising on public anger without providing real answers? Let’s look at the facts and figures.

Khairy isn’t wrong.

The Covid-19 Immunisation Programme coordinating minister isn’t the only politician who has complained about vaccine hoarding. On Wednesday, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen also expressed the same sentiment.

Even the rich nations were putting conditions for supplying vaccines to other countries, Momen reportedly told journalists at his ministry office in Dhaka after a weeklong visit to the United States.

Without naming any country or the conditions, he said, “They’re seeking this or that in return.”

In March, The Guardian reported that rich countries with 14 per cent of the world’s population had secured 53 per cent of the best vaccines.

Almost all Pfizer/BinNTech vaccines will go to rich countries, the United Kingdom newspaper reported.

”The Moderna vaccine will go to rich countries exclusively; it is not even being offered to the poor. In fact, nine out of 10 people in poor countries may never be vaccinated at all. Washington is sitting on vaccines making sure no one gets any while the US needs them. The European Union has exported 34 million doses to, of all places, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong – countries that have no problem sourcing or paying for vaccines.

”In fact, the EU sent about nine million doses to the United Kingdom, a country which, no longer in the EU, also has what amounts in practice to an export ban of its own, official denials notwithstanding,”

It’s unlikely that Moderna’s chief executives feel bad about the unvaccinated poor. The company forecast sales of over USD$18bil (RM74.96bil) for 2021, pushing Moderna into profit for the first time since its founding 11 years ago. Pfizer hasn’t done too poorly either; they’re expecting a cool USD$15bil (RM62.47bil) in sales.

South Africa, the African continent’s worst-hit country, is buying AZ (AstraZeneca) at nearly two and a half times higher than the per-unit price of European countries.

In short – the vaccines are not being sold at standard prices. It also depends on the volume that a country has ordered, which will, for example, put Malaysia having less bargaining clout with our small population.

The Guardian reported that European countries were buying doses below the supposed cap of €2.50 (RM12.43) and “African countries far above it”. In contrast, Canada has purchased more doses per head than anyone else – enough to vaccinate every single Canadian five times over. But the entire continent of Africa – home to 1.3 billion people – has been allocated a total of only 300 million doses.

As of the first week of January, only 25 vaccines had been administered in all of sub-Saharan Africa. Yes – dua puluh lima (twenty-five).

While many Malaysians were praising Israel for administering 150,000 doses of vaccine a day, it was not widely reported that the Palestinians, whose land it occupied, were left out.

Last week, it was widely reported in the Arab media that the first batch of Pfizer vaccines that the Palestinians received did not conform to specifications. The 90,000 doses that were supposed to expire in July or August turned out to expire in June.

The BBC has also reported about the predicament faced by the poor countries.

Since December, it has been reported that rich countries are hoarding doses of Covid vaccines and “people living in poor countries are set to miss out”, according to a coalition of campaigning bodies.

The People’s Vaccine Alliance, a movement of health and humanitarian organisations, says nearly 70 lower-income countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people.

This is despite AZ pledging to provide 64% of its doses to people in developing nations, it said.

”And even though rich nations represent just 14% of the world’s population, they have bought up 53% of the most promising vaccines so far, according to data from eight leading vaccine candidates in Phase 3 trials that have done substantial deals with countries worldwide,” it said.

What about the EU? Well, it has secured 900 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and reserved an option to buy 900 million more to be delivered by 2023.

In short – while most developing countries are struggling to give the first jab, the EU is ready for the booster jabs, in case the third shots are needed.

That gives the EU as many as 3 billion secured doses, or 6.6 per person, without accounting for the optioned ones,” Quartz reported.

It said, “excess vaccines give wealthy countries power over those dependent on donations in order to immunise their citizens. Many countries are using vaccines as a diplomatic tool, donating them in order to strengthen—or form—international alliances. China has excelled at this but the United States is catching up.”

So, Taiwan – the US ally – snubbed China-made vaccines and waited for the vaccines, and naturally, Taiwan got what it wanted for being supportive of Washington DC.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Temasek-led investor group injected USD$250mil (RM1.04bil) into the German biotech firm through a private placement last June. In short, it has a stake in the vaccine manufacturing company.

Yes, Malaysia should have done better in procuring the vaccines and even expedited the vaccination exercise.

But countries are at the mercy of the manufacturers and the rich countries. They decide who should get it and how much.

If there is any comfort to the European countries, which have been accused of hoarding, they, too, have taken legal action against AZ for failing to deliver the vaccines on time.

Still, while developing countries struggle to give their people the first vaccination, the rich countries hoard the vaccines for booster shots. The third injections are needed to fight the different variants.

THERE is a lot of unhappiness on the ground. The extension of the lockdown has not surprisingly gone down badly, with most Malaysians grappling with the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Many have lost their jobs or will lose them soon. Their loan-servicing has gone bad, and putting food on the table has become increasingly difficult, especially for daily wage earners.

For many small businessmen, their businesses have folded up and it can only get worse.

It’s a tough call for the Prime Minister. He is caught in a perfect political storm as his opponents step up their criticism of his handling of Covid-19, which continues to hover at around five thousand cases a day.

If he had decided to be a populist by ending the lockdown, he would have been attacked viciously for being irresponsible.

His decision has also been greeted unhappily, but I am sure he would not want Malaysia to go the way of India where the health system collapsed.

It’s a lousy time to be a Prime Minister everywhere, but those who have managed to take their countries back to normalcy will earn political dividends even though they started badly, like in the United Kingdom.

The key here is vaccination. Malaysia needs to achieve this as fast as possible. The government needs to set their target ahead of time, and it’s best we hit herd immunity before the year is out.

We can’t afford to have more lockdowns. Malaysia will crumble because we do not have the financial means to cushion our economy. For example, those who have lost their jobs will not get paid benefits for furloughs, unlike rich countries.

Singapore has taken the right approach – the Covid-19 pandemic is here to stay, and we must learn to live with it.

But it has been able to do so because it has successfully won the fight, and most Singaporeans and expatriates have been vaccinated.

The island republic’s plan is simple. Get vaccinated and live with it, but no date has been fixed for this plan. Officials also plan to loosen travel restrictions, gathering limits and social distancing requirements to fully vaccinated individuals. In addition, it has been reported that Covid-19 testing will shift from being used for quarantines to being used for ensuring social activities can happen safely.

Singapore is a disciplined country, it is run systematically. Its politicians don’t run foul by breaking standard operating procedures (SOPs) which they are supposed to uphold.

What is not said is that Singapore is preparing itself for the reopening of the country and the plans are being laid out now.

It has a plan, for sure, but a few details are being floated to see the reactions to the move. Singapore does not talk first and work out the plans later.

Their ministers have also written carefully crafted opinions in newspapers to share their plans instead of speaking off the cuff, unlike some of our ministers, and sometimes, making a mockery of themselves.

We do not need a political science professor to tell us there is a trust deficit among Malaysians.

And while Singapore has devoted itself to reopening the economy, our politicians are devoted to the reopening of the Parliament. Most of us have suddenly become Constitution experts, rightly or wrongly.

So, if we are unhappy with the nationwide lockdown, what do we want the government to do? Shooting off toxic messages in social media, with name-calling, will help release steam, but it won’t help.

Maybe for a start, we should suggest that the government allow states which have seen a drop in the number of cases to move on to phase two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).

Half of the daily Covid cases are from Selangor, but it has also taken a slight dip as of Monday (June 28). Perlis has five, Terengganu 23, Penang 88 and even Kelantan has 101.

Yes, we cannot take our foot off the brakes, but a more flexible approach needs to be considered.

Businesses regarded as non-essential need to be reopened as the owners are in danger of losing their contracts and even sued if they cannot fulfil them. The losers will be the factory workers.

Our governments have not explained well why some factories are allowed to operate and have caused questions to be raised, even of a racial tone.

The reason is simple – our country’s exports are at risk, and these factories employ hundreds of thousands of workers, both Malaysian and foreign.

To encourage vaccinations and for the economy to reboot, those who have had the two doses should be allowed to travel out of state without permits and attend places of worship.

The most asked question is this – after a lockdown of two weeks, the number of infections has not gone down. After the extension, what happens if the numbers remain the same and even if it hovers around 4,000, it is not something to celebrate.

According to the NRP, we will then proceed to phase two, where some sectors will reopen although large gatherings will still be banned.

Seriously, it’s time we look at the worst-case scenario and prepare for that situation.

Perhaps, it isn’t easy to make the forecast even though there are projections. That also explains why announcements are made late.

Japan has found itself in the same predicament.

Case numbers in Tokyo have been creeping up over the past week since Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga lifted the state of emergency imposed to rein in infections. Any sharp increase could mean the emergency is reintroduced, further restricting residents’ activities even while the Olympics are taking place.

He reportedly said the government must be on high alert as cases begin to rise in the capital, about three weeks before Tokyo hosts the summer games.

”While there is a downward trend across the country as a whole, there is a slight upward trend in the capital region,” Suga told reporters Monday (June 28).

”We must be on a high state of alert in dealing with the virus.” He added that he would be nimble in adjusting policies to deal with the situation.

The seven-day moving average of new infections recorded in Tokyo rose to 477 on Sunday (June 27), compared with 388 the previous week.

In Sydney, millions of residents began the first full day of a two-week coronavirus lockdown on Sunday as Australia imposed new restrictions to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Australia’s northern city of Darwin also entered a separate snap 48-hour lockdown on Sunday after a handful of cases were linked to a coronavirus outbreak at a remote gold mine.

In Jakarta, there have been calls for a lockdown after 30 doctors died of Covid-19 this month as the country battles a second wave of the disease driven by the Delta variant.

This last lockdown should have ended, but it hasn’t. Let this one be the last by working hard on it.

If the pandemic doesn’t kill us, our politicians will.