After two decades of wars and the low priority allocated to the infrastructure of health institutions, the Corona pandemic has hit the last remaining resilience of this fragile system, at a time when Iraq is facing political and security blunders and popular protests in the center and south of the country as a result of the poor political system, widespread unemployment and corruption in government institutions .
Iraq is a rich country and is resorting to foreign aid to confront the Corona outbreak ... What is the reason?
The threat of the Coronavirus has accumulated, with the health sector being poorly prepared for the risks of coping capabilities to contain the pandemic and cope with infections, as several hospitals lacked oxygen bottles and virus protection equipment, so doctors provided this equipment with their own money.
The Corona threat did not stop on the health sector, but extended to spread across multiple sectors, the most important of which is the economy, with the face of an economic crisis resulting from the collapse of oil prices and the general closure of a number of commercial and entertainment centers and institutions, which led to job losses, exacerbation of poverty and insecurity without any prior government plan.
Al-Sumaidaie believes that most developing countries have received aid as a form of courtesy or to promote a vaccine (Al-Jazeera)
Marketing of vaccine companies
Political analyst Ibrahim Al-Sumaidaie says that most of the developing countries have received aid as a form of courtesy in international relations or to promote the vaccine, meaning that the purpose of these grants is to market to companies that manufacture the vaccine.
The Ministry of Health - Al-Sumaida’i continues - does not have plans to supply the second dose to those who need it, especially medical personnel, and the main defect is due to corruption in the Ministry of Health and political corruption, as happened with a company called Iraq Holding Company, which obtained a mandate from the Council of Ministers to contract on behalf of The Ministry of Health intervened as an intermediary to purchase the vaccine, but its mandate was later withdrawn from Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi.
Despite the announcement by Minister of Health Hassan Al-Tamimi about the agreement with the company "Pfizer" (Pfizer) to import 1.5 million doses of vaccine pending the provision of cooling supplies to bring it to Iraq, and the agreement on 16 million doses with the International Federation of Vaccines, the majority of Iraqis doubt the government's ability to provide the vaccine For citizens and limiting it to political figures and influential people.
After the arrival of the first shipment of the Chinese vaccine, which is primarily aimed at medical personnel, Pakistan announced that Iraq had granted 3 shipments of medical aid in a charitable gesture to express the solid historical relations between the two countries, which brought back to mind previous corruption cases in the Ministry of Health and questions about delayed purchase contracts Vaccine by the government, and whether this was part of the political deals to acquire vaccine contracts.
"We live in death every moment," says vegetable seller Asaad Hassan (40 years old).
Muhammad al-Mahmoudi (a journalist from Baghdad) believes that the lack of trust between the citizen and the authority has been rooted for decades, and this authority has entrenched it and made itself in constant hostility with the citizen, so he deals with it as a fraud and a shady who plundered his wealth and does not pay any attention to his life.
He indicates that this position is justified today, as no statesman came to gain confidence, and the numbers of the injured and the warnings issued by the authority were misleading and part of its attempt to evade its responsibility to provide model health institutions, which led to caution and suspicion on the part of the citizen in the issue of the vaccine. .
Iraq suffers from a shortage of medical personnel and a weak health infrastructure (Al-Jazeera)
Political dimensions
Harry Steinen, a researcher in Iraq for water, energy and economics from Washington, said that there are some doubts about the involvement of mediators in purchasing the vaccine for Iraq, but there appears to be a statement that the government will buy directly from suppliers, as the country needs about 20 million doses, and a few thousand Donors won't make much difference.
Given the record of "COVID-19" in Pakistan, it does not seem that this country has done well because a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is looming on the horizon, and therefore "I doubt that the aid will include any doses of vaccines." Pakistan’s stockpile of the "Sinopharm" vaccine donated by the Chinese government last January, and the initiative of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is politically motivated to establish close economic and military and intelligence cooperation with Baghdad, especially after the visit of Defense Minister Jumah Inad Saadoun to Islamabad this month At the time, the latter offered to train the Iraqi armed forces.
Pakistan also views Iraq as an alternative supplier of oil at a reduced price after the deterioration of its relations with Saudi Arabia, which suspended loans and oil supplies to it.
It is noteworthy that the health sector in Iraq ranks 176th out of 195 countries, according to the Global Health Security Index, based on a list prepared by the Johns Hopkins Center of problems related to scarcity of funding, low priority given to health in the government budget, infrastructure, and a shortage of doctors and nursing staff. Making Iraq unable to cope with the "Corona" virus. According to the World Health Organization, there are the equivalent of 8.2 doctors for every 10,000 people in Iraq.