Indemnify jab makers to speed up vaccination

Not only have these jabs had safety trials done, enough of them have been given worldwide to assure us—and insurers—that the risks of adverse reactions are very lowPremium
Not only have these jabs had safety trials done, enough of them have been given worldwide to assure us—and insurers—that the risks of adverse reactions are very low
 3 min read . Updated: 07 May 2021, 12:47 AM IST Livemint

The Centre should relieve vaccine suppliers of legal liabilities for adverse reactions and use insurance to compensate the few who suffer these. This could boost our immunization drive

India’s vaccine urgency is clear. We are in a race to get people generating antibodies faster than Sars-CoV-2 can spread and mutate out of our cross-hairs. If the government has done well to open our market to all covid vaccines from around the world that have valid stamps of approval, as it did last month after a second wave of infections hit the country, the US administration deserves credit for lending support to the idea of holding intellectual-property (IP) controls in abeyance for the duration of this pandemic. Our shortfall of doses, however, is likely to persist for a while yet. Our own planning has been abysmal, vials have been booked in bulk globally, production takes time, and IP rights may not get suspended anytime soon. But there exists another supply constraint that needs to be eased right away, one imposed by potential legal liabilitiesarising from ‘adverse events’ caused by jabs. If vaccine suppliers are lumped with the risk of being slammed with individual or class-action lawsuits on that score, they would be that much less willing to ride to the rescue. The solution is to grant them indemnity against such charges, with a simultaneous public compensation plan put in place by our government, which, in turn, could get itself an insurance cover to back such a scheme. It is a matter of public interest, after all, to immunize everyone. Oddly, though, despite pleas made last year by Indian vaccine makers, the Centre has not taken this burden on. If we are to lure foreign vaccines such as Moderna’s and Pfizer’s, among others, India must revise its stance on this.

Assuming reparatory responsibility for any harm caused by vaccines is unlikely to strain our exchequer. Not only have these jabs had safety trials done, enough of them have been given worldwide to assure us—and insurers—that the risks of adverse reactions are very low. According to data gathered by Bloomberg, over 1.2 billion doses have been administered across 174 countries so far. Even if information is taken on doses injected till a month ago, and then sliced to reveal what is known of each formulation’s effects on different populations, the numbers would be sufficiently large to offer a reliable set of likelihoods. The actuarial data thus obtained must have achieved stability by now, at least on problems faced within 30 days of a shot. The rare blood clots that Europe’s regulator found linked—by way of correlation more than clinical causation—with AstraZeneca’s vaccine took less than a fortnight to show up. The chance of this was so tiny that it was no cause for alarm. Allergic reactions occur far sooner. According to the US Center for Disease Control (CDC), just 2-5 recipients per million suffered anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction, after getting a covid dose, and almost always within half an hour. Of the 245 million doses that were given between 14 December and 3 May in the US, the CDC got 4,178 reports of death. This works out to just 0.0017%, again, too low a figure to sweat over.

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Our own data, in contrast, looks deficient. While independent trackers have reported over 100 serious post-jab reactions in India, including deaths, the Centre’s panel tasked with tracking these has issued final reports on only 13 such cases so far, with just two traced to vaccine injections. Yet, an insurer would surely be able to assess our local risks and offer India a low-priced policy, letting the Centre compensate families swiftly and adequately for lives lost to jabs (or injuries sustained). State payouts for sufferers and indemnity for vaccine makers can combine to spell a vaccination programme that’s both fairer and faster. Let’s do it.

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