: Asia Was a Model for How to Deal With COVID-19. Why Is It Lagging in Vaccine Rollouts? #WorldNEWS Since the first major outbreak last February, South Koreas COVID-19 response has been a model for other

Asia Was a Model for How to Deal With COVID-19. Why Is It Lagging in Vaccine Rollouts? #WorldNEWS
Since the first major outbreak last February, South Koreas COVID-19 response has been a model for other nations—its government praised for its ability to quash each spike in infections without severe lockdowns, relying instead on quick action, extensive testing and tech-powered contact tracing, along with social distancing and public cooperation.
But lately, President Moon Jae-ins popularity inside the country has been sinking—in part because of frustration over the speed of vaccine rollout. South Korea has yet to authorize the use of a COVID-19 vaccine, or even receive any doses. In a poll last month, 60% of respondents said the government should move faster with inoculations.

The country is not alone in the Asia-Pacific region.
More than 40 million vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, according to data compiled by the NGO Our World in Data. The U. S. started its vaccination program on Dec. 14; now more than 10. 5 million people have received their first dose. The U. K. gave its first jab on Dec. 8, and the European Union started Dec. 27.
But most nations in the Asia-Pacific region, including South Korea, wont begin vaccinating citizens until February or March. New Zealand, another COVID-19 success story, wont start vaccinating its healthcare workers until April. In the wealthy business hub of Singapore, just 6,000 people have received doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since Dec. 30, out of a population of 5. 7 million.
Read More: A Year After COVID-19 Emerged, Asia Struggles to Contain Growing Outbreaks
Its the deft handling of COVID-19 by many countries that has contributed to them becoming laggards in the vaccine race, experts say. Although countries from South Korea and Japan to Thailand are battling resurgences of the virus now, governments do not feel the same urgency to begin vaccinating because infections are largely under control.
The U. S. and U. K. face a raging, uncontrolled surge that is reaching unthinkable levels of illness and death, threatening to break their health systems, undermining national economies, worsening inequities and stoking social instability, says J. Stephen Morrison, the director of Global Health Policy Center at the Washington-D. C. -based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). That pattern is absent in Asian countries which had in place the systems to intervene early and strongly.
Comparatively low infection rates have bought governments time to wait to observe the safety and efficacy of the new vaccines as they rollout elsewhere in the world.
Price is another consideration. South Korean Health Minister Park Neung-hoo said in November that the country could wait until it was able to negotiate a reasonable price for the vaccines.