A majority of our population, mostly the poor, will be deprived of vaccine and left more vulnerable.
The recent video of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling upon bureaucrats and citizens to give him ideas to tackle the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is another way to divert focus from the core problem currently – vaccine chaos.
Chaos unfolds
For a leader who had centralised everything from planning, execution, storage, booking vaccines, with no clear policy, this is yet another cocky way of spinning a web of confusion for most who are struggling to get even one shot, while making his ardent followers believe in him yet again. The way the mass immunisation drive in this country has been handled, it is actually a shame that the leader who believes in speaking to the public through monologues on various platforms has always skirted the issue of getting every Indian vaccinated. Wordplay spun with lies is what these monologues have been, and sadly, citizens are not at the centre. Rewind to January this year, when the PM said the states would be given free vaccines for the frontline health workers. At that time, the Central government placed an order to purchase 11 million doses of Oxford (SII), Covishield at the cost of Rs 210 per dose, inclusive of GST. By then, some countries had begun efforts to vaccinate their entire population. By the end of December, UK had already rolled out its vaccination plan. By January-end, Israel had successfully vaccinated three million people with the first dose, though the US had a slow start; however, within days of President Joe Biden taking charge, a full-scale vaccination rollout had begun. As of Wednesday, 1,474,710,622 vaccine doses have been administered globally. This basically means, globally, only 4.7% are fully vaccinated, as yet.
In fact, there are approved vaccines being administered across the globe and most countries have a minimum of three to four vaccine choices. Early this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said India and Brazil accounted for half of the world’s new Covid-19 infections. But right now, Brazil has more companies providing vaccines and is doing a better job than India. In fact, in February, Brazilian health regulator Anvisa had refused a request to import doses of Covaxin, for their vaccination drive. Though they did clarify, it was more to do with bureaucratic delays than its quality or efficacy. Later, in March, it was also stated India had deferred sending out Covishield vaccines. India has been exporting both Covaxin and Covishield to poorer countries, but the PM failed to take into account the domestic demand for vaccine.
According to the UN Share verified site, there are four types of vaccines used in the world. The first, where the whole virus is weakened or inactivated – as in the case of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin or Sinopharm or Sinovac. The second is where the vaccines use safe protein fragments of the virus, as in Novavax. The third kind are vaccines which use the virus that produces coronavirus proteins, manufactured by Johnson&Johnson, SputnikV, Covishield, Oxford/AstraZenca. Lastly, are the vaccines that use genetic material from the virus, RNA/DNA which are being manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.
The problem is, the Indian government has been working in mysterious ways and ensured that only two companies, Oxford/ AstraZeneca (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) can manufacture and sell the vaccine in India. So much for being atmanirbhar, given that now many states like Maharashtra have said they will procure from foreign companies directly.
Haffkine Institute too has finally been given the official letter to begin manufacturing of Covaxin. But some basic questions need to be asked to the PM: Mainly, why did he delay the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines till now? Why has he centralised the entire process and yet, states have been asked to manage their own vaccine demand and supply? The BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation had, a year ago, urged the Central government to allow door-to-door vaccination drive for disabled, bedridden and immobile senior citizens. In the whole anti-Maha Vikas Aghadi fight, a shortsighted Central government refused this permission. On Wednesday, the Bombay High Court slammed the Modi government for not allowing this door-to-door vaccination drive.
Power play
What is it if not petty politics? Because many housing societies in the lockdown because of the second wave have gone back to their old ways of not allowing domestic workers, cooks, helps, ward boys and nurses to tend to their old and sick residents. The mini wars in various societies are on a smaller scale as compared to 2020, but that is precisely the reason the local corporator, ward offices can work with the many housing societies that are eager to hold vaccine camps within their own premises. On a daily basis, citizens are struggling to book a slot for the vaccine. Some senior citizens who went to hospitals looking for these at both private and government ones, came back with the virus. The new Indian variant is deadly and closer home, we are witnessing many getting affected and numbers rising and even deaths. The point is, in times of the pandemic the Bharatiya Janata Party has not been able to cast aside petty politics and worse still, the mainstream media has not done due diligence. Not a single story have we heard or read about ailing, homebound senior citizens anxious to be vaccinated, asking for doorstep service.
Moreover, the chaos begins with fastest finger contest, wherein millions are trying to find a slot on that CoWin portal at the same time. This portal too is Centralised. The logic of this too is beyond anyone with a smidgen of common sense. The PM has ensured at every level there is no decentralisation and governance. Most have forgotten that the PM has won the second term with a bigger majority, after promising good governance. This whole mess has been created by his government, which obviously means even the blame rests on the head of the state. However, the chief of the RSS, the parent body of the BJP, has neatly shifted the blame on the public for letting its guard down and allowing the second wave pandemic to spread. It is pathetic how at every level, there are attempts made to protect their leader, who should be held responsible for the complete collapse of the vaccine drive in India. Right from ordering the correct number of doses (I.38 billion multiplied by 2), negotiating pricing, supplies, there have been inconsistencies. Why, there is a huge problem with even India’s vaccine approval system. If one recollects, Pfizer had initially had been the first company to apply to allow India to use their vaccine. But the Indian government wanted a small, localised safety trial before approving it. This was around February and the company withdrew its request. At that time, there were more vaccines than takers, as most were wary of the efficacy of both Covaxin and Covishield. Sadly, Indians have been denied the right to choose their vaccine. Even a poorer country like Brazil did not face such a problem. The real reason for the Pfizer pullout was it was not willing to give in to India’s demand for a liability clause. Now, all of a sudden, the Central government has done a complete U-turn. Early this month, Pfizer said they were in talks with the Indian government over an “expedited approval pathway” for its vaccine. Now, this is all the more reason people who have been waiting for this vaccine should be wary. At every level, we see the Indian government going on the backfoot but at no time wants to give answers to the people or be accountable.
If you see the disparity in vaccines being administered in rich and poor countries, it is shocking to say the least. According to the WHO, 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have taken a Covid vaccine, as compared to the measly 1 in 500 people in low-income countries. WHO further states Covid-19 is leaving many of the world’s most marginalised children without access to immunisation. It has been proved that immunisation is one of the most cost-effective public health interventions and has averted approximately 2-3 million deaths every year. It is extremely sad to note our country’s head allow high drama and histrionics to play out even as our adult population and numerous senior citizens have been left out of the vaccination process.
Simply put, this means, a majority of our population, mostly the poor, will be deprived of vaccine and left more vulnerable.
Neeta Kolhatkar is a senior journalist with over 30 years of work experience across different media platforms. She is currently a freelancer and media consultant.
(Views Expressed Are Personal)
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