Govt officials get secretly vaccinated amid delay in mass vaccination, claims journalist

Amid reports of a delay in the procurement of vaccine, senior journalist Sohail Warraich has claimed that the government is in no hurry to order the coronavirus vaccine as most of the senior government members have already been vaccinated against the deadly disease.

In an article published in Jang, Warraich implied the bigwigs of this country are in no hurry to inoculate the masses as they now consider themselves safe following the administration of the vaccine. His article was shared by former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) minister Miftah Ismail, who retweeted the column on his Twitter handle.

In his column @suhailswarraich implies that all the bigwigs of the government have already got a vaccine and therefore there is no hurry for a vaccine for the rest of us. The President, PM and ministers should tell us whether they have already gotten vaccinated against Covid. pic.twitter.com/gwT4kHRu6a

— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) January 16, 2021

A similar claim was made by journalist Saleem Safi as well. He tweeted that the senior government officials and aides of the prime minister have already been vaccinated. “These people are now distributing the vaccine to their near and dear ones,” he alleged.

نااہل ہونےکےساتھ ساتھ یہ حکومت ظالم بھی ہے۔اہم حکومتی اوروزیراعظم کےقریبی افرادچین سے ویکسین لےکرچوری چھپےلگا بھی چکے۔ قریبی لوگوں میں بھی بھانٹ رہے ہیں لیکن قوم کے لئے ابھی تک ویکسین کا آرڈر بھی نہیں دیا۔ایک طرف "ریاست مدینہ" کا نام اور دوسری طرف یہ سنگدلی؟ https://t.co/gmSmrtL8Xr

— Saleem Safi (@SaleemKhanSafi) January 16, 2021

Federal Minister for Information Shibli Faraz rejected these claims. Talking to The Current, Faraz said he hasn’t heard anything like this to the best of his knowledge.

Asad Umar, who heads the National Command Operations Centre to fight the virus, also denied these reports while talking to a media outlet.

He said a proposal for the earliest vaccination of strategic leadership was presented earlier, but it was rejected by the government. “I, however, do not know if someone got themselves vaccinated in secret,” he added.

As the pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer, started to roll out vaccines, the government announced that Pakistan will have the vaccine by March 2020. However, a recent report revealed that the government has not even placed the final order for the procurement nor has any manufacturer agreed to sell it to Pakistan as of yet.

PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan was quoted by The News saying that Pakistan has yet to place a final order and strike a deal with a manufacturer.

On Dec 31, it was reported that the government had decided to purchase 1.2million doses of a Chinese vaccine, Sinopharm, amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak across the world.

Pakistan had planned to vaccinate its population in three phases: In the first phase, frontline health workers will be inoculated; the second phase will be focused on the elderly; the third phase will be for the general populace.