Malaysia denounces the "vaccine discrimination" of certain countries
Campaign against Covid-19 in a vaccination center in Kuala Lumpur, May 5, 2021. AP - Vincent Thian
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2 min
In Malaysia, an expression comes up more and more in the news: "vaccine discrimination".
Behind these words, the government deplores the positioning of several countries which do not recognize the AstraZeneca vaccines produced in Asia or the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, however recognized by the World Health Organization.
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With our correspondent in Kuala Lumpur
,
Gabrielle Maréchaux
While in some Western countries
the vaccine race
may have looked like a sprint with a majority of the population vaccinated in less than six months, in Malaysia it looks more like a marathon.
The minister in charge of vaccination had already criticized the way in which developed countries had monopolized vaccine doses.
He denounces today a growing gap between the countries of the North and those of the South after the announcements of the European Union: the latter does not recognize the doses
of AstraZeneca
produced in Asia.
A new decision simply "
absurd
", he assures us, because the composition of the doses are identical wherever they are produced.
In
Malaysia
, 8% of the population is now fully vaccinated, the majority precisely thanks to doses of AstraZeneca manufactured in South Korea, Japan or Thailand.
Another country in the sights of the authorities: Saudi Arabia.
The country also does not recognize AstraZeneca vaccines produced in Asia, nor the Chinese vaccine Sinovac.
This is used in Malaysia, but also in other predominantly Muslim countries on the Asian continent such as Indonesia, Pakistan or Turkey.
Pilgrimages
to the Holy Land thus seem compromised, deplores Malaysia.
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Malaysia
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