Every Govt./ Every Kingdom is procuring vaccines for its citizens/population on its own to be administered at the Govt.’s cost as it is pandemic. Like our PM says, once in a century pandemic. Why is it that Govt. of India is dragging its feet on vaccination? Our Govt. always plays hockey with data is known to everybody. But this time, they are playing ping pong with States as if the citizens represented by Centre and State are two different set of individuals. Especially when India is amongst the top 5 worst handlers of the virus in the world. May be it is about Modiji being loyal to his friend, Mr Doland Trump (Not Donald, as that is how our PM likes to call him).
On April 18, 2021, when Corona cases had jumped 2.75 Lakh for the day with 1600+ deaths and our PM was lauding the efforts of the public to attend his rally in West Bengal and expressing his pleasure to see the huge turnout of crowds. The States were making clamour for more vaccines as they had to reach out to its respective citizens with answers to problems and not an explanation for failure to deal with the problem. Perhaps some CMs were just posturing to care which the case may not be.
Barely 50 days with the modified rules of the new Vaccination Program, the policy stands scrapped and new policy has replaced with the old one. Will we witness further changes into the Vaccination Policy, especially because Centre plays dumb down with MoHFW focused on Congress rather than vaccines or perhaps that’s the case with the every Minister of Govt.
The arbitrary and irrational vaccination guidelines were framed after receiving the letter from former PM, Dr. Mute Singh. Apparently he is not mute in Opposition and while as PM, his work did the talk rather than tongue. Lets look at what Dr. Singh said and what our Govt. did in response.
First, the government should publicize what are the firm orders for doses placed on different vaccine producers and accepted for delivery over the next six months. If we want to vaccinate a target number in this period, we should place enough orders in advance so that producers can adhere to an agreed schedule of supply.
To counter, Data is not the strong forte of our Govt. under Modi. Though their party is empowered with data at every booth level during elections. Govt. has given some numbers of orders placed and we know it will keep revising over the next few months to create total confusion to the already chaos created by our Govt. Guidelines and circulars for gag orders to States on Vaccine stocks have been issued in second week of June.
Second, the government should indicate how this expected supply will be distributed across states based on a transparent formula. The central government could retain 10 percent for distribution based on emergency needs, but other than that, states should have a clear signal of likely availability so that they can plan their roll out.
On empowerment of States for vaccination, Govt. of India has over extended itself. To bring transparency, Central Govt. developed a quota system and made an effort to wash their hands from vaccine procurement process. The Govt. said, “Manufacturers would transparently make an advance declaration of the price for 50 per cent supply that would be available to State Governments and in open market, before May 1”.
Dr Manmohan Singh is talking about distribution process and our Govt. understood it as procurement process. In addition, they have further allayed the process on private hospitals. The quota system of supplies between the Government of India and “other than Government of India” channels would be applicable “uniformly across for all vaccines manufactured in the country”.
Third, states should be given some flexibility to define categories of frontline workers who can be vaccinated even if they are below 45 years of age. For example, states may want to designate school teachers, bus, three-wheeler and taxi drivers, municipal and panchayat staff, and possibly lawyers who have to attend Courts as frontline workers. They can then be vaccinated even if they are below 45.
On this point, our Govt. agreed fully; so Govt. responded with the change. States have been given the authority to take a call to open vaccination to any category of people above the age of 18 — a shift from the current policy in which the central government decides on age-specific priority groups for vaccination.
Fourth, over the past few decades, India has emerged as the largest vaccine producer in the world, thanks to policies adopted by the government and robust intellectual property protection. The capacity is largely in the private sector. At this moment of a public health emergency, the Government of India must proactively support vaccine producers to expand their manufacturing facilities quickly by providing funds and other concessions. In addition, I believe this is the time to invoke the compulsory licensing provisions in the law, so that a number of companies are able to produce the vaccines under a licence. This, I recall, had happened earlier in the case of medicines to deal with the HIV/AIDS disease. As far as Covid-19 is concerned, I have read that Israel has already invoked the compulsory licensing provision and there is an overwhelming case for India to do so as well quickly.
On this point, Govt. has extended advance payments to vaccine manufacturers, which they had to pay in any case, but there is no support from Govt.’s end. On compulsory licensing issue, the Govt. does not want to wrong signal to the investing community and they would continue to put all their eggs in two baskets of two domestic manufacturers. Let’s see for how long they drag their feet. Govt. gave affidavit in SC that it is not tenable but the PM is asking for TRIPS waiver in G7 summit for all Covid related medicines/vaccines.
Fifth, since domestic supplies are limited, any vaccine that has been cleared for use by credible authorities such as the European Medical Agency or the USFDA, should be allowed to be imported without insisting on domestic bridging trials. We are facing an unprecedented emergency and, I understand, experts are of the view that this relaxation is justified in an emergency. The relaxation could be for a limited period during which the bridging trials could be completed in India. All consumers of such vaccines could be duly cautioned that these vaccines are being allowed for use based on the approval granted by the relevant authority abroad.
In response, the Centre has allowed imported, fully ready-to-use vaccines to be entirely utilised in the other-than-Government of India channel. This means that if and when pharma giants like Pfizer bring their vaccines to India, they can directly sell their entire supply in the open market at competitive prices.
To further complicate the India’s Vaccination Policy. Central Govt. is also working on a complex formula. We have 29 States with population size of 135 Crores of people. I really don’t understand who puts such out of the world ideas in our Govt.’s head. Or perhaps they are forced by politics.
In the next phase, the Centre will allocate its share of 50 per cent to states based on the extent of infection (number of active Covid cases) and vaccination performance (speed of administration). States are at present receiving vaccine doses based on demand (the number of registrations and walk-in vaccinations). “Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria and will affect the criteria negatively. Based on the above criteria, State-wise quota would be decided and communicated to the States adequately in advance,” the Centre said.
“India has been following a dynamic mapping model based on availability of vaccines & coverage of vulnerable priority groups to take decisions of when to open up vaccinations to other age-groups. A good amount of coverage of vulnerable groups is expected by April 30,” the Centre said.
Nobody knows if this policy was in discussion for a day or a week or a month. May be our Govt. was also thinking clearly on the lines of Dr. Manmohan Singh. In order to take credit, they jumbled up the whole issue, wherein our PM is yet to respond to his predecessor and MoHFW headed by Mr. Matru wrote about the politics naming the political parties in response. The reason he could not become part of the discussion process, while inventing the mumbo-jumbo, they are feeding the public amidst the pandemic, when people were dying due to lack of oxygen, hospital, medicines.
Central Govt. was heading for a shake down from Supreme Court and hence they changed the policy. Good sense prevailed in our Govt. to scrap the policy. Is it the impending elections in 5 States scheduled for early next year? Everybody knows, our PM’s and our Govt.’s heart and mind is always stuck in elections. They make decisions and formulate policies on how it would appear in elections.
Truth is stranger than fiction and an enemy of reality.
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