Situation of vaccines in Colombia

 For anyone that lives in Colombia it's not a secret that the process of vaccinating here it's really slow. Many people is going to The Unites States because they think that they will be having Covid-19 before  having his turn in this country and receiving the vaccine. In my personal case, just my two grandmother are vaccinated, but i'm really concerned about my dad, because he suffers of hypertension, so i don't want him to have this virus with that condition. I know that this not only my case, many people in Colombia have the same concernes with their parents or even themselves because other disease like obesity would make this virus more letal. 

As we know, worldwide there are 164 countries that also want to reach a high level of immunity for their population. We find many countries where they have been able to reach this level of immunity, such as China, and the United States. According to the WHO and BBC, this first country where the virus originated had 1,175,451,507 doses, and the USA with 246,780,203, making this virus no longer become a public health problem, where in these countries the Wearing a mask is no longer necessary.

But the case for Colombia is unfortunately not the same. We have more than 50 million inhabitants, where according to Fernando Ruiz Gómez, Minister of Health and Social Protection, affirmed that the country "already signed with the Covax mechanism the contract to acquire vaccines for 10 million Colombians, equivalent to 20 million dose, with two-dose vaccines. " making us wonder where is the other part of the population?

Colombia has not stood out in this vaccination process, since the Colombian government was unable to close agreements or pre-agreements with other countries near us. While other countries such as Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica or Mexico announced a vaccination process since October and November, Colombia at that time was still debating these agreements to obtain the necessary vaccines, so on February 17 the vaccination process just began in the country, and there were 50 thousand COVID-19 vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which were freely granted to countries that need it most due to their economic situation.

According to the Colombian government, 2,243,392 immunizers have been applied against covid-19 and 286,067 citizens have been vaccinated with the two doses, mainly first-line medical personnel and over 80 years of age. It should also be noted that Colombia is in a third peak of the pandemic, which has not been able to be controlled despite the fact that it was known that this was going to happen, leaving a disappointment in the Colombian people about the measures and actions that it has taken the state for this health emergency.

It is very important to emphasize that this vaccination process affects the country nationally and internationally, since this virus continues to cause damage on the Colombian economy, and also on its politics. The high inequality and poverty gap that exists in Colombia is getting bigger; As alarming figures we have a population of 3.75 million in a state of unemployment, leaving a growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) never before seen in the history of the country, with a drop of -6.8%, where it leaves us with a large external debt, and an increase in the dollar, which stands at 3,800 pesos, a significant increase, and leaving a barrel of oil at 69.65 USD, causing a decrease for the country, and for its exports and imports with these economic indicators.

With all this we can see that Colombia isn't providing a good standard of living to its inhabitants, and causing this global issue to escalate and show us the difference in handling this problem with other countries, and how Colombia is being perceived abroad with countries in which we owe them money, and with the risk of not being able to comply with the established payments, and being able to continue to be in a bad way before our handling in this pandemic.

Bibliography 

Riaño, n (2021) Estos son los efectos económicos que ha dejado el Covid-19 en Colombia. Retrieved from https://www.larepublica.co/especiales/encuesta-empresarial-2021-i/estos-son-algunos-de-los-efectos-economicos-que-ha-dejado-el-covid-19-en-colombia-3125811

El pais (2021) La vacunación no despega en Colombia. Retrieved from https://elpais.com/internacional/2021-03-24/la-vacunacion-no-despega-en-colombia.html

MinSalud (2021) Minsalud detalló proceso de adquisición de vacunas. Retrieved from https://www.minsalud.gov.co/Paginas/Minsalud-detallo-proceso-de-adquisicion-de-vacunas.aspx

elHopsital (2021) PLAN DE VACUNACIÓN CONTRA EL COVID-19 EN COLOMBIA. Retrieved from https://www.elhospital.com/temas/Plan-de-vacunacion-contra-el-COVID-19-en-Colombia+136932