Govt. seeking loan to buy vaccine!

In a crisis situation, we often accept or ignore something that society doesn't do usually. It's a bit surprising to see reports that authorities concerned are seeking US$2.5 billion loan from multilateral lending agencies such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for purchasing vaccines for coronavirus.

It's surprising because we've a national annual budget of almost US$67 billion. It's surprising because Bangladesh is graduating from the status of a least developed country to developing country. Many are curiousto know if the country really badly needs this amount to procure the vaccines for our people.

The loan assistance has been sought through official letters as reported. There is nothing wrong in taking loans for national development but vaccine is an issue of life and death. The situation gives birth to the question of how we will distribute the vaccine with our existing health system.

Zafar Iqbal

Winnipeg, Canada

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