The Vaccine Race

We are witnessing a race in the vaccine rollout. A race towards the light at the end of a tunnel and a race which will likely define the next few years, according to Dr Charles Alessi, chief clinical officer at HIMSS.

This is a race between nations to see who is the first to emerge from the horrors of the COVID-19 second or third waves. 

The advantages of becoming able to break free from lockdown are enormous. Not only to the “captive populations”, but also economically as countries start to get to grips with the enormous damage this pandemic has wreaked on their economies. 

Who are the riders and runners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa?

Israel is clearly in the lead. Approximately 30 doses per 100 people of the population have been vaccinated as I write this and this is an extraordinary achievement. Although it is not exactly typical of its peers with a small (9.2 million) population in a small geography, in many respects Israel has become the laboratory for the world. They also enjoy excellent digital infrastructure and have the capacity to mobilise their population quickly. They have already vaccinated more than seven eighths of the over 60s. The effect of this on the number of 60-year-olds and above in intensive care should be discernible over the next few weeks, when according to the Weizmann institute this will translate into a halving of their number in critical care and if we extrapolate further, most COVID-related deaths will have disappeared in Israel by the Easter in early April.