Yep, one of my kids got freaking Sputnik here in Guatemala since our president is an idiot and spent the whole initial vaccine budget on sputnik and then it was impossible for him to travel to the US for several years since they don’t accept Sputnik and he can’t get another vaccine since he’s already in the system as having gotten one.
Seems like the big EU/US countries stockpiled the “acceptable” vaccines and left you guys in a shit position tbh
The egregiously overextended demand for the few “acceptable” vaccines drove prices above what a country like Guatemala could reasonably accept, forcing the adoption of Sputnik
The thing is Russia was Russia (who saw that coming) and took our money and then kept delaying delivery. By the time the Sputnik came through neighboring countries were getting their orders of EU/US vaccines.
I mean, to some degree it just makes economic sense: the Sputnik vaccine was $10/dose compared to the $30/dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. If Guatemala has to burn it’s entire budget to get enough Sputnik vaccines, I don’t think the budget would have supported buying Pfizer/Moderna ones.
I can’t speak to the other countries on this list but South Africa had ample access to vaccines. The take-up was low. Reasons offered were doubts around the efficacy and conservative attitudes to modern medicine.
Why was the EU stockpiling so many while Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America were reliant on the Sinovac/Sinopharm/CanSino vaccines?
Yep, one of my kids got freaking Sputnik here in Guatemala since our president is an idiot and spent the whole initial vaccine budget on sputnik and then it was impossible for him to travel to the US for several years since they don’t accept Sputnik and he can’t get another vaccine since he’s already in the system as having gotten one.
Seems like the big EU/US countries stockpiled the “acceptable” vaccines and left you guys in a shit position tbh
The egregiously overextended demand for the few “acceptable” vaccines drove prices above what a country like Guatemala could reasonably accept, forcing the adoption of Sputnik
The thing is Russia was Russia (who saw that coming) and took our money and then kept delaying delivery. By the time the Sputnik came through neighboring countries were getting their orders of EU/US vaccines.
I mean, to some degree it just makes economic sense: the Sputnik vaccine was $10/dose compared to the $30/dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. If Guatemala has to burn it’s entire budget to get enough Sputnik vaccines, I don’t think the budget would have supported buying Pfizer/Moderna ones.
IIRC they were subsidized a good deal for developing nations.
Yeah, might have been. Can’t remember how much for the life of me.
I can’t speak to the other countries on this list but South Africa had ample access to vaccines. The take-up was low. Reasons offered were doubts around the efficacy and conservative attitudes to modern medicine.