It happened as it was expected to happen. Albanian Premier Edi Rama flied to the United States to make pictures and later use them for domestic propaganda of his meeting with Albert Burla, the president of Pfizer, the company that has produced the anti-Covid vaccine.

Rama arranged the meeting with the intermediation of a Greek Orthodox priest, but left empty-handed from the meeting in the Pfizer headquarters in New York.

He tweeted there is a huge global demand for vaccines and Albania stands in an extra-long queue of countries hoping to receive the vaccine, also adding that smaller and lower-income countries are less advantaged.

It’s a negative response Rama could have received via a simple email, but he needed a picture in New York to sell his story of getting tired in the streets of NYC trying to obtain the vaccine for Albanians, but they turned him back empty-handed.

Rama’s tweet about meeting with Pfizer’s Albert Burla:

The positive meeting I had with Pfizer’s boss Albert Burla in the headquarters of the vaccine producing company in New York concluded our communications of this researching visit to obtain the vaccine for Albania – an extraordinary effort in the circumstances of insane global demands.

The production is still much lower than the world demands! But our ambition is not to remain behind in the extra-long queue of countries that want the vaccine. Besides the just-opened channel for the Pfizer vaccine, we’ll continue to open channels for Moderna and Astrazeneca vaccines.

Our ambition is to start the vaccination within the first two months of the next year. It seems impossible, but we’ll do it, despite the extreme difficulties for all in this situation, where the smaller and lower-income countries are more disadvantaged.