Chile and Serbia vaccinate against COVID-19 faster than the European Union

Chile and Serbia have already injected a first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to more than 17% of the population. The European Union administered a vaccine to only 6% of Europeans.

Almost 3 million doses in 3 weeks

Chile, a country of 18 million people, already gave the first shot of COVID-19 vaccines to 3 million of its citizens.

It amounts to 17% of the population. President Sebastián Piñera expects all Chileans over 65 to have at least a first dose in the coming days.

These performances are even more striking that 90% of the vaccination injections occurred in less than three weeks, with an average of 130,000 first shots every day.

In fact, their mass-population campaign only really started at the beginning of February. On February 3^rd, less than 80,000 doses were injected. It quickly outpaced the European Union, though. On average, Chile inoculated the serum 4,4 faster than the EU members in February.

Serbia doesn’t have much luxury of choose

The European Union started the vaccination in December. However, it is going steadily but slower than the United Kingdom, the United States, or even Serbia.

Serbia, which is not part of the EU, has almost given as many shots as the US proportionally to the size of its population, with 20 doses for 100 people.

The differences can be explained by the pragmatism of these two countries: a quick execution and a sense of realpolitik.

As reported by the BBC, Serbia’s Prime Minister is not picky on where the vaccine comes from, whether it is a Chinese, American or European one: “We don’t care as long as they’re safe and we get them as soon as possible.”

The Chinese vaccine largely distributed

The European Union doesn’t use the Chinese vaccine, CoronaVac, developed by Sinovac.

However, Serbia and Chile welcome it with open arms. The large-scale campaign in Chile actually started with the Chinese medicine. It bought the one from Pfizer and received doses at the end of December, but the quantity they could get compared to the EU was minimal.

As a matter of fact, President Sebastián Piñera and the Ministers of Health and Science greeted the shipment of nearly 2 million Chinese doses on Thursday, February 25^th. The next day, another lot of 2 million was received.

Almost a month earlier, 4 million vaccines were also collected by the President himself in the course of 3 days, which allowed the country to start the campaign at scale.

Chile supported clinical trials

Chile has recorded more than 800,000 infections and 20,000 deaths, drawing harsh criticism from the population.

But the country agreed to perform phase 3 clinical trials for AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac and CanSino.

The country was, therefore, in a favorable position to negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies, helped by its reputation as a wealthy state.

The Chilean administration even provided funds for hosting Sinovac’s trial, supported by the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, in exchange for advantageous access to the medicine. The University, one of the most recognized in Latin America, had already worked with Sinovac for respiratory viruses before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The European Union, home to 450 million people, has administered more than 30 million doses in total, which is still ten times more than Chile. The South American country has also given the 2^nd injection to only 50,000 persons so far.

Chile aims to double the pace in March, with 300,000 daily injections, and have 80% of the population vaccinated by the end of June 2020.

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