MT News Service
Jammu, May 14:
Former Minister J&K and Senior Congress leader Yogesh Sawhney on Friday alleged that the newly implemented gap of 12-16 weeks between the doses of Covishield has not been tested in clinical trials also, so it appears that the government is doing so because of shortage and not because of the claimed scientific basis.
Sawhney reacted to the Union Govt’s decision to increase the gap between the two doses of Covishield Vaccine to 12-16 weeks from the earlier 6-8 weeks. He said that both doses of the Coronavirus vaccines have been administered to only 2.8% of the Indian population so far. Amid increasing infections, this decision seems to have come more out of shortage of vaccines than out of any scientific rationale. The decision will slow down the vaccination drive in India since less than 3% of the population has been fully vaccinated so far. The Union Government’s approach towards the vaccination drive is extremely weak and unstable, even. There is shortage of vaccines across the country. The vaccine manufacturers are selling the same vaccine at different prices to the centre and states. On top of that, the government keeps changing norms. Thus, there are a lot of issues with how India’s vaccination program is being implemented by this government, and it was their narcissistic attitude and lack of willingness to listen to experts has culminated in the form of the second wave in the country. said Sawhney.
As per press statement issued to mercury times, Sawhney said that earlier the interval between two doses was 4-6 weeks for Covishield and 28 days for Covaxin. Then, the government extended the interval period to 4-8 weeks for Covishield and 4-6 weeks for Covaxin. Now, the government has again increased the gap between two doses to more than 12 weeks. Is it because India is facing an extreme shortage of vaccines that the government was forced to take this decision?
The Indian Government delayed the process of placing vaccination orders in comparison to countries like US, EU, Australia, Japan, countries which gave their first orders for vaccine starting from July 2020. The Modi government, on the other hand, placed their first order for vaccines in 2021. What was the government doing for a year, then? Even now, state governments have been forced to released global tenders to cater the needs of their populations whereas it should be the Centre who should release global tenders for acquiring vaccines for the entire country. At one point, India was sending out vaccines to other countries, now we’re ourselves facing shortages because of the government’s haphazard planning or lack thereof.
Sawhney said that India’s vaccination drive has been botched by the Modi Government as they focussed more on antics and news headlines than the lives of people. On the one hand, the government has been falsely claiming giving out crores of funds for vaccination research and development, while on the other hand, the same government has said to the Supreme Court that it did not give any funds to both vaccine manufacturing companies in India. Only much later in April- May 2021 did the government think of extending credit facilities to these companies to expedite the process of vaccination. But the decision came too late, as many people who could have been saved have already died. Experts have said that it will take India 3 years to fully vaccinate it’s population and here we have to realise that the government could have reduced this time, had it taken necessary steps in time. And while India’s health infrastructure is at its breaking point, the Union Health Minister puts out absurd information such as having dark chocolate to manage stress in these times. This shows how incompetent this government is, that instead of stressing the importance of scientific methods and bolstering Covid Management through scientific research and development, they’re busy in feeding illogical beliefs. For a country where people are dying due to lack of oxygen, ventilators and hospital beds, such insensitivity on the part of the government is highly condemnable.
The Former Minister further added that another major problem with India’ vaccination system was the double pricing scheme being adopted by vaccine manufacturers. “Why are their two prices for the same vaccine?”, he asked. He said that even the state’s should not be asked to pay higher price for the vaccines while the Centre is procuring them at much lower rate. Even in the US, the same vaccine is available for much lower price. Supreme Court has also asked the Centre about the reason behind double pricing in India and the Centre defended vaccine manufacturers in this regard. It is absurd that in a country state governments are being subjected to pay higher prices which increases the burden on them. The Centre had earlier said that the states will but 50% of vaccine doses, then why will those 50% of vaccine doses cost much more than the other half percentage, he asked.
He said that to make things worse, the pace of the vaccination drive has also slowed down now. Only about 10% of the population has been vaccinated with one dose of the vaccine, which cannot be considered complete vaccination. Getting as many people as possible vaccinated in India should be the government’s priority right now. Besides, there are so many communication and data gaps. Online data is not being readily updated which is causing confusion and chaos in many cities as patients are sent from hospital to hospital in search of beds. Moreover, the government’s mighty claims are not at all in sync with what is really happening on the ground. If we look back in history, India has often had one of the strongest vaccination and immunization programmes in the world whether it was measles, TB among others. But this time, the government’s reluctance in following experts’ advice among many other huge mistakes has created a situation so problematic that it’s difficult for people to have hope. While some government biased media and their headlines paint a rosy picture of million vaccinations each day, the real picture is quite different. How can India’s vaccination be called the world’s biggest vaccination drive when India has not even fully vaccinated 3% of its population while many countries in the world are about to complete vaccinations of their vulnerable populations.
The Congress leader said that now, the Centre should procure vaccines at affordable prices for the states as states make the country, they’re not separate from the country. Moreover, the Union Government should provide financial assistance to more companies and permit them to manufacture vaccines so that production level could be increased. The need of the hour is that the government becomes transparent, fast-tracks vaccinations through planning and management, ensures equitable access to necessary infrastructure through expert suggested measures, and finally, plans to prevent the possibility of a third wave well in time.
