The problem of Covid-19 vaccination can be tackled with proper planning and efficient execution. We have both -the resources and the capacity.
V.S.Pandey
Currently the second covid wave is still raging throughout the country. Depressing news of oxygen shortages are still filling the newspaper columns. Despite all these shortages and myriad problems, our administrative structure, medicos, doctors, nurses, sanitary workers and our frontline warriors are trying their best to handle this unprecedented situation, treat patients and provide the required medical advice to those not requiring hospitalization. There are clear signs that corona has started affecting our rural areas also where testing facilities are non-existent and the abysmal health care system existing there is incapable of doing much to help those infected. This is the time when additional resources need to be pushed towards rural India to combat this pandemic. That requires proper planning and guidance from the top, to enable the people working at grassroot levels to quickly respond to the emerging situation. The Government needs to ramp up production of every kind of medicine, cylinders, oxygen, beds etc even at the cost of some of these things remaining un-utilised and going waste. The nation can well afford to allow a few thousand crores rupees going waste but should try to do everything possible it can to save every precious life. This is not difficult but it needs people who have integrity, commitment and love for their country to manage the situation . Self serving people will do nothing more than just ensuring safety of their own position. These are the people who are adept in the art of befooling the people around them. But unfortunately they are the chosen ones in every dispensation, past and present and surely in the future also.
The mess created in the corona vaccination programme must end now. Whosoever suggested to the government to have differential pricing policy should be sacked without any delay. It seems they had no clue of how realities are at the ground level. In our country we have vaccinated crores and crores of people in the past and succeeded in eradicating many viruses but people were never bothered with the supply issue or the issue of cost sharing between the centre and states. This ridiculous thought of asking all the states to order vaccines from two manufacturers situated in our own country belies every logic. Today newspapers are full with stories of several state governments having floated global tenders for procurement of corona vaccines and many other states are following suit. This scenario has made us a laughing stock across the world as if central government has no responsibility towards its citizens and states have to fend for themselves to save lives of their population. Nothing could have been more shameful than the thought of leaving the states to fend for themselves when they are mostly dependent on central government grants as they are left with hardly any authority and power to enhance their income after parliament passed the law on GST etc.
This is the time for Prime Minister Modi to take the lead and put all the might of the federal government to bring relief to the people. There are clear signs that the third wave of this virus is going to arrive soon and to tackle that smoothly, country needs to vaccinate its population expeditiously. But for that to happen we need uninterrupted vaccine supplies. India has a very strong pharmaceutical industrial base, thanks to many visionary and enterprising people. They are extremely capable people with tons of experience and the capacity, to be able to deliver whatever is required not only for our country but also for other poorer countries of Asia and Africa. The Prime Minister needs to first free the intellectual property rights of the only indigenous vaccine “covaxin” in which ICMR, a governmental body, has stakes , to all the Indian manufacturers and ask them to start production on a war footing by providing them enough monetary resources, if required , and place firm orders with them . We should not waste our effort or energy in asking for waiver of IPRs from foreign vaccine manufacturers. They can question us as to why we have not asked our own indigenous vaccine manufacturer to first waive Intellectual Property Rights.
Vaccination in our country can progress at breakneck speed only when the central government purchases all the vaccines from every source possible. It has to ask all the indigenous manufacturers to utilize all their available facilities, that can ramp up production of vaccine, to manufacture vaccines and then commence door to door vaccination programme without any further delay. Those who have been part of mass vaccination programme in our country in the past and present , know that we have enough trained manpower available in every village to carry out not only the mass vaccination programme but also utilise this trained manpower to spread awareness about handling this pandemic and help panicking public to recover from this infection, without much difficulty .The problem can be tackled with proper planning and efficient execution. We have both -the resources and the capacity .The time has come for Governments to go all out to help our population overcome this crisis, with the least possible collateral damage.
(Vijay Shankar Pandey is former Secretary to Government of India)
