Papua New Guinea’s vaccination rate is only 3.3%

FOR CITIZENS of a country where AIDS, dysentery and road traffic accidents rank among the top ten causes of death, it is difficult to get worked up about a newfangled ailment like covid-19. And when friends and family appear more scared of vaccination than of infection itself—when they say that a jab is a one-way ticket to hell—it is perhaps natural to resist getting inoculated. Little surprise then that Papua New Guinea, a desperately poor corner of the world, has the lowest vaccination rate in Asia and among the lowest in the world. Just 3.3% of the population has received even a single dose.