Mexico recently became the first country in Latin America to allow the emergency usage of the coronavirus vaccine, and only the fourth in the world. The country was hit hard by the virus, with the fourth-worst situation in the world. The COVID-19 vaccine comes from the collaboration of Pfizer and BioNTech, and the usage has been authorized by Cofepris, Mexico’s health agency. The United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, and more recently the United States are the only other countries to authorise the emergency usage of the vaccine. The Mexican government is planning to administer the vaccine to 125,000 people, primarily those working in the medical field. The vaccine requires 2 doses, so this equals about 250,000 doses. The government purchased a total of 34.4 million doses from the companies. They also have potential agreements with three other companies for almost 165 million more doses.
As Mexico has been hit fourth-worst by coronavirus, the country’s trials with the vaccine will give a strong idea of what’s to come for the rest of the world. If they’re able to quell the virus without administering the vaccine to the entire population, similar trends will likely follow across the globe. Additionally, Mexican healthcare workers have been hit especially hard by the virus, with news outlets reporting nurses were told to “avoid wearing masks,” and many have died as a result of contracting the virus. As healthcare workers are already limited, their health is a top priority, so hopefully the administration of the vaccine will solve this issue as well. Overall, Mexico’s progress or lack of it will likely allow the rest of the world to make a good prediction as to how the next few months will progress.
This relates to what we’ve been talking about in class by looking at this issue from the perspective of the collective goods problem on a smaller scale as well as globally. The vaccine would benefit the entire country of Mexico, as well as the international community, by helping the world start to transition back to normalcy and in turn starting to rebuild the economy. However, some take their own interests into hand first, such as those who believe the coronavirus is a hoax or those who are anti-vaccination. It’s a difficult choice for governments as to whether they should impose on their citizens’ rights by mandating the vaccine, or give them a choice, allowing the virus to possibly still spread.