Differential vaccine policy announced by Modi govt will lead to total chaos

A section of America is battling what it terms as “medical tyranny”, asking people to “fight now” or forever “lose your freedoms and die as a medical experiment prisoner.” The adherents of this worldview reject masks, vaccines and lockdowns. They go so far as to say that “medical criminals” are using people as “human guinea pigs for illegal gene-altering vaccine experiments.”

That said, America has vaccinated or given a single dose to as many as 50 per cent of its population. The section battling the so-called “medical tyranny” must be among the leftover 50 per cent. The vaccines in use in the United States are Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. There are some concerns (rare blood clots) regarding these vaccines but overall Americans are satisfied.

Unlike in India where the clamour is for universal vaccination and the debate is on the Modi Government’s priorities. It appears that the Centre, which is at the centre of the vaccination drive, is more confused than coordinated. And the sweeping nature of the second COVID wave has completely disturbed whatever rhythm there was in the vaccination drive when it got going.

The severity of the second COVID wave caught everybody unprepared even as the Modi government lost itself in serving the BJP’s electoral interests rather than the welfare of the people which at this point of time should have been solely fixated on alleviating COVID-related grievances.

That criminal negligence will perhaps cost the nation more than it will the Bharatiya Janata Party. Such is the myopia that plagues most of the electorate in India. But that is another and different story.

The story now is that the Modi Government’s vaccine fluctuations have left the people confused. Not two weeks ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared rather ponderously that “we defeated COVID-19 without vaccines once” and that we’ll repeat the feat again!

It was an irresponsible statement. COVID-19 was not defeated, neither here in India nor in any place else on the planet. If anything, there was a feeling of having contained COVID-19, a pyrrhic victory that gave a high to those who wanted to believe it, to people like Narendra Modi, and those who had voted for Modi and the BJP!

It led to the complacency, which had a cost component to it, deferred payment which will ultimately fall on the aam aadmi.

Instead of taking the bull by the horns, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood at the lectern and preached politics -- in West Bengal and other poll-bound states even as the vaccination drive in all the states hit roadblocks. For example, vaccination centres in Maharashtra closed shop for want of vaccine doses.

There was serious jeopardy in store even as several voices rose for “universal vaccination”, and Modi was still contemplating no change in his vaccination plan.

Then, suddenly, as if out of the blue, when even a blind man must have felt the heat from COVID-funeral pyres, Modi got off the pulpit-podium. Beginning May 1, every adult will get a shot at vaccination, he announced; that migrant workers will start getting vaccinated ASAP and they would not lose their jobs.

Has the announcement brought relief? A visit to hospitals across the country doesn’t give any impression of that kind. Right now people are in a state of panic. The COVID-19 strain currently on a rampage doesn’t seem to care for the vaccinated or the unvaccinated.

The chaos characterizing India’s COVID-landscape at this point in time is a pandemic in itself. Modi has added 500 million more people to the vaccination list even as not everybody in the “over 45 list” has been vaccinated. Besides, the majority of those who got their first dose have still to get their second dose.

It is more than likely that the change in eligibility, which should bring a whole horde within distance of a COVID-19 jab, will only be on paper. Neither Serum Institute of India nor Bharat Biotech, makers of Covishield and Covaxin respectively, share the optimism of the Narendra Modi Government.

What’s more, they have now put a price-tag to the vaccines, which has drawn flak from opposition parties, which are asking the Modi Government about whatever happened to free jabs, how people still reeling from the aftermath of the first lockdown could “purchase immunity” when another lockdown is staring them in the face?

The point is, there’s no way the Centre can make arrangements for COVID-vaccination of millions upon millions of people landing up at vaccination centres on a daily, hourly basis. The government just does not have the required vaccine supplies. To add to the cost, the chaos at vaccination centres will be collateral.

The Modi Government says it would make “pricing, procurement, eligibility and administration of vaccines open and flexible, allowing all stakeholders the flexibility to customise to local needs and dynamics.” The question is, who will pay for the vaccines? The governments of Assam, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have announced free vaccination for all adults. Where does that leave the other states?

Then, again, where earlier the Centre was procuring and allocating vaccines to states, now the Centre will receive only 50 per cent of vaccines from manufacturers to be distributed among the states. The remaining 50 per cent will go directly to the states or can be purchased by private hospitals and industrial establishments.

These will not be “free.” The millions of India will be pining for "medical tyranny" of the sort that allows vaccinations in the United States of America.

(IPA Service)

Views are personal