For months, the government promised the people of Indonesia that it would secure hundreds of millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines from various international partners. Its timely vaccine diplomacy made Indonesia among the first few countries in Asia to get a head start on its vaccination drive – and supporters of the state were quick to remind any detractors of this fact. But as the reality of the recent embargo-induced global shortage of vaccines slowly sinks in, the government can no longer deny that Indonesians might have to wait longer than promised for their jabs, if only because of a growing sense of protectionism among vaccine-producing countries. The nation is slowing down its vaccine roll-out to account for limited supplies following shipment delays of 10 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine via the multilateral COVAX-GAVI fair distribution facility. It also ...