Despite the claim that India has emerged as the fastest country in the world to take ahead its Covid vaccination drive which is factually correct, it’ s also undeniable that there are long queues in front of health centres and daily, for the majority of people it’s nothing but hopelessness. There’s just not enough vaccines anywhere and it’s true across the length and breadth of India. A ray of hope emerged after the Supreme Court asked the Centre last week to explore options to increase production of Covid vaccines by invoking the relevant sections of the Patents Act. That hope, however, it seems will not get materialized very soon since the Centre on Monday virtually ruled out any immediate application of the said legal provision that would have increased the production of Covid vaccines as well as life-saving drugs. Meanwhile, the gory picture is just not limited to makeshift crematoriums that are being constructed daily with pyres burning 24x7, dead bodies of patients who succumbed to the deadly virus are being found floating in Ganga in Buxar district in Bihar- a chilling revelation that firewood are on shortage! Many of them could have been saved if besides oxygen and medicine there was a correct and methodical commencement of the national vaccination drive.
So far as the ‘pace’ of vaccination is concerned, it’s true and commendable that India has administered more than 17 crore vaccine doses in just 114 days, for which China took 119 days and the United States 115. But, these tall figures will hardly be the true reflection of the on-ground situation. After the new ‘Liberalized Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy’ the onus to procure vaccines from the manufacturers directly has fallen on the states, besides the financial burden of giving them free to the citizens. Through its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court on Monday the Centre has urged it to keep off the subject of the pricing of Covid vaccines and antiviral drugs and informed that waiving of intellectual property (IP) protection and granting compulsory licences to more manufacturers to boost production would be the ‘last resort’. It’s a round-about way of saying that no judicial intervention will be welcomed and expectedly, the gesture has surprised all in the country-the medical fraternity and citizens. All states including Arunachal Pradesh have been pushed in an extremely difficult situation now- procuring vaccines globally is not going to be easy as a little search will reveal how overbooked the manufacturers are already across the world.
Lockdowns will just be an ad-hoc solution and after lifting the same level of Covid susceptibility will return. There’s no better saviour than vaccines. But having the fortune of getting inoculated is like winning the lottery now.  

 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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