Where are the Vaccines ??

 

In December 2020, my father was giving his remarks that why our PM is only talking about vaccines and not focusing on economy. I replied, vaccine is most important. He knows this is his chance to wipe the slate clean for all his previous blunders. All will be forgotten, the pain of lockdown, the farmers agitation, economy will perhaps also start healing.

 

The only area where PM Modi has shown remarkable performance is distribution services. No matter whatever anybody says, our Govt. has no clue how to develop policy, how to formulate plans/schemes to make it better for development of India. Be it demonetization, GST or the declining economy for last 20 quarters which in resultant has tanked, every policy, every plan is a dud from the word go.

 

By distribution, we mean DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), Toilets, the speed and scale given the size of population of India. It is beyond phenomenal, Congress might have taken quarter a century to achieve the same. Now with the pandemic, there is a sense of urgency in the world to vaccinate as many people in the world as much is possible, that too quickly without wasting time, without lagging for a day.

 

On May 28 2021, RaGa is asking, What is India’s Vaccination Strategy? To answer, nobody has a clue, because we know our Govt. has socially distanced itself from all issues relating to virus to preserve the image of our Prachar Mantri (PM). But Pappu tweets/video clips have always had impact on the Govt. to make us wonder, who is the real Pappu here, RaGa, Govt. or the people? Every time he tweets, two or three Ministers from the Cabinet come with all guns blazing in a Press Conference (the only time it is important for our Govt to address the Press) to berate Pappu. Our Govt.is more conscious of Pappu than even Supreme Court.

 

Ideally it is one amongst the three, I & B Minister, Textiles Minister, IT & Telecom Minister. So this time, Prakash Javadekar did the honour of handing us over the deadline to complete Vaccination for ALL by December 2021 in India. When the Govt. of India had given an Affidavit in SC with a different number of population to be achieved by December 2021. We know, our Govt. is playing a game of musical chairs.

 

I fail to understand why our I & B (Information & Broadcasting) Minister is giving us target date for vaccination instead of MoHFW (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare), Dr Harsh Vardhan. May be he is busy eating dark chocolates due to Covid stress. MoHFW Minister had clearly stated in Parliament on the floor of the House, not all need to be vaccinated for Covid 19 on March 19, 2021. The same Minister who had stated, Corona is not a Health Emergency on March 13, 2020, and Prachar Mantri put India under complete strict lockdown on March 23, 2020.

 

Though Mr Minister’s Statements leaves more questions to be answered rather than giving solution to the problem. Vaccination for ALL includes two jabs or a single jab. Is Govt. considering vaccinating under 18 population? No developed country has given the target or deadline to populate the entire population. Majority are looking at 60%, 70%, 80% of the population by June, September or whichever month. No Govt. is taking the responsibility of inoculating 100% of the population as they realize, not all citizens are willing to be vaccinated. Hence they are targeting as much population as possible with the speed to be achieved as soon as possible.

 

PM Modi said that he is confident that India will realize its dream of becoming self-reliant (Atmanirbhar). “I am confident of the abilities, confidence and potential of my fellow Indians,” the prime minister said. This was Prachar Mantri (PM) delivering his anecdotes on last Independence Day (August 15, 2020). Following points are excerpts from his anecdotes on Vaccination.

 

Þ   India will start mass production of vaccines once we get a green signal from scientists: PM Modi

Þ   The strategy to ensure that coronavirus vaccine reaches every Indian in the least possible time is ready

Þ   There are 3 vaccines under development in India: PM Modi

Þ   Every Indian will have health ID card: PM Modi

Þ   National Digital Health Mission will begin from today. This will bring in a new revolution

 

Post Independence speech, Prachar Mantri has spoken a lot number of times on vaccines from behind his teleprompter. On April 7, 2021, PM made the Statement while addressing the Chief Ministers of all States that India has defeated Corona virus without vaccines. I don’t know if this statement was made under Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission or some Jan Kalyan (plus some nice Hindi word) Mission. Yet the reality is stranger than the fiction story of our PM, because on next day (April 8), our PM announces Tika Utsav from April 11 – April 14.

 

In hindsight, I don’t know even know, the need to incorporate vaccines in the speech was the resultant of RaGa’s tweet on August 14, 2020. India will be one of the Covid – 19 vaccine producing nations. It needs a clearly defined, inclusive and equitable vaccine access strategy ensuring availability, affordability & fair distribution. GoI must do it now; said his tweet.

 

A large number of analysts or Op-Eds are crunching data on the number of Covid vaccines to understand the perspective. Almost every citizen of India is asking where are the vaccines? But the fact remains the Govt. of India never knew/saw/visualize the urgency to order vaccines.

 

Now when the question needs an answer, where are the vaccines? Our Prachar Mantri has been officially quarantined from vaccines issue. Because he knows, when you need a number (doses) and a date (comprising of numbers), the mere platitudes with a punchy tagline are not going to help.

 

Independence speech was home delivered by our PM after GoI had appointed a Vaccination Expert Committee a week before to work on the vaccine distribution and other aspects of the vaccine. The most this expert committee achieved in first 6 months is quarantined India from vaccines.

 

Until then wait for an update about vaccination from Information Technology Minister also known as Resignation Prasad. In the meantime, bask in the glory of Atmanirbhar Mission, because our Govt. has left citizens to fend for their own.

The Govt. had set a target of vaccinating 300 million healthcare and frontline workers, and those above the age of 45 till August on the launch of India’s Vaccination drive on January 16, 2021.