- It was fervently hoped that maximum beneficiaries would be inoculated in a time-bound manner soon after the launch of the vaccination drive in India at the beginning of the year with two vaccines viz. Serum Institute of India manufactured Covishield and indigenously developed Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Contrary to popular belief, initial apprehensions surrounding the vaccines as also inadequate availability of the shots in greater numbers marred the drive to a significant extent. Technical glitches encountered by the Co-WIN app also contributed to the slow pace thereby spectacularly failing to cover the intended beneficiaries.
PC: PIT
- Initial lack of enthusiasm displayed by the healthcare workers viz. doctors and nurses also severely restricted the drive from taking off. As the entire country tended to relax ignoring the visible warning signs of the dangers of the virus still lurking around, the purposeful push and urgency that should have been accorded to the vaccination drive suffered hugely leading to the present desperate situation. Despite cautioning from the health experts not to let our guard down vis-à-vis diligent following of safety and health guidelines, the citizens went about their routine with nary a concern. The disaster was waiting to happen, and indeed it appears to be the case now.
- A slew of assembly elections to few States and a UT only added to the unrestrained movements of people grossly ignoring the time-tested norms. The political parties and their respective leaders who were expected to lead from the front miserably failed in following the health and safety guidelines. Watching the teeming gathering during the campaign rallies, sometimes running over lakhs, is hard to digest raising questions about the priority of political parties. Compromising health at the cost of hankering for power defies not only sound logical explanation but also vividly exposes skewed priorities of the policymakers. People can see through it.
PC: Ann Snook
- Speaking with the benefit of hindsight, the election commission could have deferred the elections or the President’s rule could have been imposed on these states citing an extraordinarily emergency-like situation. Left with no concrete option but to increase the availability of a greater number of vaccines, the Union Government has fast-tracked approval of foreign-produced vaccines authorized by major global regulators. The move allows US pharma giants like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax as potential gainers supplementing the efforts to push through the vaccination drive with few more vaccine options. The Union Government should leave no stone unturned on this aspect by pursuing till the end.
- Apart from allowing the introduction of the above-mentioned vaccines which will take few more months to fructify, the focus area should also be on increasing the production capacity of the local vaccines to complement the efforts of inoculation which will see an uptick in the coming days. As the severity of the infection is lesser amongst the vaccinated people, there will be a huge demand from the worried citizens to get inoculated as and when they are made eligible. If planned meticulously alongside diligently observing covid-appropriate behavior, there is no reason why we cannot tide over the second wave crisis by emerging less scathed. Let us not give up!
