Bangladesh should focus on building its capacity to produce the vaccine locally in an effort to achieve the much-desired herd immunity against Covid-19, experts suggested at a webinar on Tuesday.
Alongside finding multiple sources for jabs, it should also exercise caution while striking any deal with foreign entities in this regard, they said.
According to the experts, Bangladesh needs more than 250-million shots to vaccinate a sizeable number of people with an objective to achieve the herd immunity.
The webinar styled 'Vaccine Diplomacy: Bangladesh Perspectives' was hosted by the Study Group on Regional Affairs, a local platform working on regional issues.
Former foreign secretaries Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury and Touhid Hossain, former health secretary AMM Nasir Uddin and former regional director of World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Muzaherul Huq were panel discussants.
Prof Dr Md Sayedur Rahman, chairman of pharmacology department at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, also joined the event as a panellist.
Amir Khasru, convener of the platform and a senior journalist, moderated the discussion.
Prof Huq said the WHO has not yet given its final approval for any Covid vaccine. It has allowed emergency use of a few vaccines developed by different pharmaceutical companies.
"We shouldn't have depended on a single source for vaccine. We've already experienced the unexpected consequence of relying on a single source", he said.
Even a developed country like the United States is collecting the jabs from different sources, including its local drug-makers, he said.
Regarding local production, Prof Huq said Bangladesh is capable of manufacturing the vaccine here.
"We may have lost the glory (of making shots) for the time being…," he added.
Mr Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury said a state-owned institute has been manufacturing several types of vaccine for five decades, which demonstrates its capacity.
He also laid emphasis on conducting research and development as Bangladesh had proved its ability in some other infectious diseases earlier.
Pharmacologist Mr Rahman said war machines and drugs are essential items respectively for killing and saving lives. Both are now proved to be very crucial tools in diplomacy.
Ex-secretary Mr Uddin said vaccination to help check Covid-19 might be a continuous process in the coming years as it is happening in the cases of polio and mumps.
"We have to co-exist with this disease (Covid-19). Thus, we have to produce vaccine by ourselves," he observed.
