Covid vaccination: No transparency, Indians left to fend for themselves

The two vaccine manufacturers in India are producing 75 million (7.5 Crore) doses of the COVID-19 vaccines every month. To vaccinate the 90-odd Crore voters above the age of 18, therefore, it would have taken more than a year if all the doses had been given to Indians. And since two doses are required, it would take actually two years of sustained production for the exercise; longer if booster doses or other vaccines to counter other variants of the virus are prescribed.

But of course, vaccines produced in India were not exclusively given to Indians first. As many as 100 million doses were sent out to different parts of the world as part of India’s vaccine diplomacy; which means that it would take even longer to vaccinate all Indians.

That is the stark reality that India and the world faces. Indeed, data suggest that at the current pace of vaccination, it would take 4.7 years for the entire population of the world to get vaccinated.

In other words, the Indian government is being economical with the truth when it claims there is no shortage of vaccines. Bharat Biotech, which developed India’s indigenous Covaxin, has a capacity to produce 10 million doses a month whereas the Serum Institute at Pune, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has a capacity to produce 65 million doses. But then it did not develop Covishield vaccine, which was developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca.

Astronomical amounts are needed to increase capacity, we are being told. Adar Poonawala of SII is on record stating that he requires Rs 3000 Crore to augment capacity. And he cannot afford to take loans from banks. People would wonder how Rs 10,000 Crore or more raised by the PM CARES fund in just about two months last year have been spent. Or, if they were spent, were they well spent?

What is also becoming clearer is that the vaccines do not prevent infection. Even health workers who have had both the doses of the vaccine are reportedly getting infected by COVID. It is still not clear if they are infected by new variants or are getting re-infected by the same variant. It will hopefully be known over the next few weeks.

Whether they actually prevent deaths still remains to be seen. But the vaccines are believed to reduce the virulence of the virus and enable the body to fight the virus better. To that extent, it is imperative that all able- bodied Indians get vaccinated. But given the capacity we have, it does not seem possible.

The central government, which from the beginning tried to control the fight against the pandemic (taking decisions without consulting states, sending central teams to assess the situation, taking over the task of distributing vaccines etc.), has now started blaming the states and the people for the surge in cases. People, said Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan this week, have been careless in not maintaining social distance and not putting on masks.

Worse, the central government is blaming the opposition for politicizing the fight against the pandemic, after doing so brazenly for over a year. The pandemic needs to be fought unitedly, resolutely and calmly. But New Delhi seems incapable of ensuring trust and transparency.

It is going to be a long haul. Indians will have to fend for themselves.

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