Massive Inoculation Drive Starts in India Despite Vaccine Doubts

Catch key highlights of Modi's speech and regular updates from the vaccination drive here.

(Bloomberg) -- Health-workers flashed victory signs after being given coronavirus vaccines and top officials sought to dispel fears about the shots as India kicked off one of the largest inoculation drives in the world on Saturday, setting in motion a complex plan to stem infections across a nation of more than 1.3 billion people.

At hospitals and vaccination centers across major Indian cities -- from Mumbai to New Delhi -- tens of thousands of key front line workers began queuing, some receiving the first vaccines while others administered them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the program with a speech addressing more than 3,000 centers across India, where the first shots were to be given.

“These vaccines will help India win the battle against the virus,” Modi said, adding that Indians should get the shots and not pay heed to any anti-vaccine propaganda.

At each location, some 100 people are expected to receive the injections on Saturday.

Vaccine Anxiety

Randeep Guleria, a member of Modi’s taskforce for Covid-19 management and V.K. Paul, who heads a panel advising the prime minister on the country’s efforts to produce and roll-out the inoculations, both sought to dispel fears about the vaccines.

Questions around its safety and efficacy erupted after India’s drug regulator gave the green light to Bharat Biotech International Ltd’s indigenously produced Covaxin shot this month even though it has yet to clear final-stage trials. Both Guleria and Paul told reporters they were injected with the controversial vaccine in New Delhi.

“Don’t go by the various statements going around on social media about side effects. Have faith in your scientists and your researchers and the regulator,” Guleria said. “Come forward, get yourself be vaccinated.”

India has also granted an emergency use license to the Serum Institute of India Ltd. which has partnered with AstraZeneca Plc to make at least one billion doses of their candidate.

“I have no apprehension. Both the vaccines are safe,”said Sandeep Nayar, 54, a senior doctor at the BLK Super Specialty Hospital in New Delhi, who had been chosen to get the first shot at his hospital. He flashed a victory sign for waiting photographers after receiving the injection.

On Saturday, Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum, posted a video of him being injected with the vaccine.

In a hospital in Mumbai, health workers chanted the Hindu god Ganesha’s name, believed to bless new beginnings, as they moved vials from cold storage to the vaccination sites. Many health workers and hospital staff shortlisted to be inoculated on the first day of the campaign said they were relieved to be on the list.

The inoculation campaign across the world’s second-most populous country will showcase whether Covid-19 can be swiftly tamed in nations with disjointed health and transportation networks. Officially, more than 10.5 million people in India have been infected with the disease that has also killed over 150,000 in the country.

Unexpected Glitches

The effort comes as more-developed nations struggle in trying to rush out inoculations. Though the U.S. and other countries have stockpiled hundreds of millions of doses, the pace of vaccinations has been challenged by unexpected glitches and logistical problems.

India’s rollout is one of the earliest and most ambitious in Asia, where many nations are taking a slower approach in vaccinating their populations. That’s partly because those countries are facing less severe virus outbreaks than India, which has the second-highest number of infections in the world.

Asian Nations That Tamed Virus Are Wary of Speedy Vaccinations

New Delhi has made its first purchase of 11 million Astra shots, as well as 5.5 million vials of Covaxin, the indigenous inoculation produced by Bharat Biotech.

Plans drawn up by India’s health ministry outline steps to vaccinate 300 million people in the first stage through August.

In an initial round, 30 million health care and front line workers -- such as the police and defense forces -- will receive injections. The second phase is targeted at about 270 million people above the age of 50 and those at particular risk to Covid. The process will draw on existing networks used to vaccinate tens of millions of babies each year against diseases such as polio.

India’s deployment blueprint “has a level of detail which I haven’t seen in any other rollout plans,” said Prashant Yadav, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington.

Bottleneck Risks

But those arrangements may face bottlenecks and vaccine wastage when implemented by the country’s four levels of government, particularly once deployment fans out to India’s rural hinterland, he said.

“There are going to be clinics in places which don’t have as much demand as was originally planned, which requires changing the plan, making supply shift to other locations quickly,” Yadav said. “Is the decision-making going to be agile?”

Massive Effort

Yadav added that “it’s unclear whether every state, district, every vaccine site will get both,” and if Indians will get a choice. “People have questions about both, but particularly about one of them,” he said. “That is the trickiest part of this rollout.”

Government officials have been adamant that both vaccines are safe and have urged the public to get inoculated.

For now, health experts and industry specialists are confident the initial phase in urban centers will be relatively well managed. The real test will come as India widens its vaccination net.

“This is a very huge operation. The largest vaccination program ever, therefore there will be challenges,” Guleria said. “Both in terms of getting the right people to come at the right time” and “following that up to see that they get the second dose at the right time.”

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