Spain has received 23 million doses of the two approved vaccines, Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, with which it is expected to immunize 11 million people; The vaccination coverage in our country, one of the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, is slow compared to Israel or UAE.
According to the latest data published on the Our World in Data website, owned by the University of Oxford, Israel has already vaccinated 25% of its population; a figure that is much higher than that of other countries such as Mexico, France or China. In the case of the United Arab Emirates, which ranks second in this ranking, the vaccination rate is 15%.
Israel’s staggering number, with two million citizens vaccinated, has not gone unnoticed by experts. One of the reasons the country is at the forefront of the vaccination race is mainly because of its solid health system, one of the best in the world according to studies by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is a mixed system where the state subsidizes part of the health care system to Israelis, who must register with one of the four health care providers (called HMOs).
Digitization and preventive medicine
The broad digitization and investments in preventive medicine These are some of the features of this health system that have enabled Israel to achieve good vaccination coverage, but they are not the only ones: the government of the country launched a public awareness campaign weeks before they started administering the doses. In fact, the Prime Minister’sIsrael, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first Israeli to receive the vaccine on December 19. “I asked to be the first to set a personal example and to encourage everyone to get vaccinated,” he told the media.
For his part, United Arab Emirates (UAE)became the first Arab country to start the vaccination campaign. As elsewhere, priority is given to people over 60 years old, the chronically ill and health workers.
In this case, the extensive commitment to vaccinating the population, with large spaces made possible in the city of Dubai, for example, has put the country in second place. Also the fact that residents of the capital Abu Dhabi started receiving doses of the Sinopharm vaccine in early December, with an effectiveness they estimate at 86%.
United States, among the top positions
Despite the fact that the vaccination campaign in U.S started at a much slower pace than expected, the country has gotten back on its feet in recent days, already administering the coronavirus drug to 3.4% of the population, ranking only fifth behind Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and The United Kingdom.
France, on the other
One of the last positions of this classification is France. The neighboring country has only vaccinated 0.49% of its population, which has provoked much criticism against the government of Emmanuel Macron and in particular against the Minister of Health, Oliver Véran. “At this rate, we will still be here in 5,000 years,” said former Director General of Health, William Dab, of current vaccination rates. Despite everything, the French executive maintains its objective of immunize 26 million civilians for the summer.
In Spain, despite the fact that the vaccination campaign does not follow the expected rhythm, another step was taken this Friday to immunize the population. A total of 676,186 doses were administered, of which 59.3%. According to Our World in Data, 1.45% of Spaniards have already been vaccinated and our country is in sixth place after Italy and the other countries mentioned above.