How Asia, once a vaccination laggard, is revving up inoculations

“It’s almost like the tortoise and the hare,” said Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute, a nonprofit organization based in Seoul and focused on vaccine research for the developing world. “Asia was always going to use vaccines when they became available.”

Risks remain for the region. Most of the countries do not manufacture their own vaccines and could face supply problems if their governments approve boosters.

In Southeast Asia, the rollout has been slow and uneven, dragging down economic prospects there. The Asian Development Bank recently lowered its 2021 growth outlook for developing Asia to 7.1% from 7.3%, in part over vaccination issues.

But for much of the region, the shift has been striking, success that is rooted in its different worldviews and governance structures.

In a contrast with the United States, vaccines were never a polarizing issue in Asia-Pacific.

Although each country has had to contend with its own anti-vaccine movements, they have been relatively small. They have never benefited from an ecosystem — sympathetic media, advocacy groups and politicians — that has allowed misinformation to influence the populace.

Overall, most Asians have trusted their governments to do the right thing, and they were willing to put the needs of the community over their individual freedoms.

Reuben Ng, an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy who has studied vaccine hesitancy globally for the past decade, said that pre-COVID, the discussion around immunization had always been mixed in Asia because of some skepticism about the safety. But Ng and his team, who have been analyzing media reports, have found that the region now holds mostly positive views on vaccines.

There is widespread belief in Asia that vaccines are the only way out of the pandemic. In September, when a vaccination center in Tokyo offered 200 walk-in shots for young people, hopefuls queued from the early morning hours, and the line extended for blocks.

In South Korea, when the authorities opened vaccinations to people in their 50s, roughly 10 million simultaneously logged on to a government website to sign up for shots. The system, which was designed to process up to 300,000 requests at a time, temporarily crashed.

People in poorer nations whose lives were upended by extended lockdowns felt they had no choice but to get vaccinated. Indonesia and the Philippines are home to thousands of daily-wage workers who cannot rely on unemployment benefits to survive.

Arisman, 35, a motorcycle taxi driver in Jakarta, Indonesia, said he got his second shot of the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine in July because his job involved contact with many people.

“If I get sick, I don’t get money,” said Arisman, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “If I don’t work, I don’t get money.”

The lack of social safety nets in many Asian countries motivated many governments to roll out the vaccines quickly, said Tikki Pangestu, a co-chair of the Asia-Pacific Immunization Coalition, a group that assesses COVID-19 vaccine preparedness. “At the end of the day, if they don’t do it, they’re going to end up with social unrest, which is the last thing they want,” he added.

When the United States and European nations were rushing to vaccinate their people late last year, many Asian countries felt they had the luxury of time. They had kept the coronavirus under control by masking, testing and keeping their borders shut. Many nations wanted to wait until the clinical trials were completed before they placed orders.

Then came the delta variant. Despite keeping their countries largely sealed off, the virus found its way in. And when it did, it spread quickly. In the summer, South Korea battled its worst wave of infections; hospitals in Indonesia ran out of oxygen and beds; and in Thailand, health care workers had to turn away patients.

With cases surging, countries quickly shifted their vaccination approach.

Sydney announced a lockdown in June after an unvaccinated limousine driver caught the delta variant from an American aircrew. Then, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who had previously said vaccination “was not a race,” called in July on Australians to “go for gold” in the country’s inoculation drive.

He moved to overcome a supply shortage, compounded by the slow regulatory approval. In August, Australia bought 1 million Pfizer doses from Poland; in September, Morrison announced a purchase of 1 million Moderna shots from Europe.

When the delta outbreak emerged, fewer than 25% of Australians over age 16 had received a single shot. In the state of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, 86% of the adult population has now received a first dose, and 62% of adults are fully vaccinated. The country expects to fully inoculate 80% of its population over 16 by early November.

“There was great community leadership — there were people from across the political divide who came out to support vaccination,” said Greg Dore, an infectious-disease expert at the University of New South Wales. “It really helped us turn around a level of hesitancy that was there.”

Many governments have used incentives to encourage inoculations.

In South Korea, the authorities eased restrictions in August on private gatherings for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to meet in larger groups while maintaining stricter curbs for others. Singapore, which has fully vaccinated 82% of its population, previously announced similar measures.

Researchers there have also analyzed the pockets of people who refuse to be inoculated and are trying to persuade them.

Ng from the National University of Singapore and his team recently found out that a group of seniors who lived alone were worried about possible adverse effects from the vaccine, fearing they could die in solitude. The volunteers promised they would visit after the vaccinations, a strategy that worked.

“This targeted approach does make a difference, because at the end of the day, the mass communications campaign can only take you so far,” Ng said.